1

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: Yesterday at 12:01:35 PM »

I think there is a middle ground on both.

Asking supporters what they expect?

Most supporters will have expected more than four goals at home this season (two of those in one game btw) and a bit more than bore draws against the likes of Plymouth, Cardiff, Millwall.

The financial parameters are no excuses for our performances at home and are reflective of their coaching (or over coaching) as some may call it. Our record for goals scored at home this season is the lowest in the football league.

I do also want to see the manager making the most of Maja and Fellows who between them have 10 goals and 8 assists. They are by far our most productive assets and I'm not sure management of them both is where I would expect it to be. The constant withdrawal after 65 minutes and as we seen on Saturday, Fellows being shunted to left wing back is affecting us going forwards.

Do I think he has done a great job given the on-going turmoil at the club? Yes, I do. He has worked wonders.

Do I want him sacked? No, I don't.

Do I think he is at times too conservative which hamstrings us? Yes, I think he is.

Our very conservative nature is a reflection of the head coach moreso than the pressures we're facing in the boardroom.

2

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Mason Holgate joins on loan

« on: December 03, 2024, 11:29:55 AM »

Named in the Championship team of the week which I found surprising.

Why? He didn't have a bad game.  The clearance off the line kept us in with a point.

3

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: December 01, 2024, 01:06:30 PM »

When Corberan first joined us we went back to basics and looked better for it. We’re almost in the position where we need to do that here. I see a head coach trying to be too clever and we’re not looking any better for it. He is utterly obsessed with this job and that is not healthy. If I was the owner I’d be telling him to go to Spain for a long weekend, forget about eveything and come back refreshed.

Yesterday was the first time that the away support turned and when that is the case the end is nigh. Given our financial problems we really cannot afford to sack him so hopefully he can turn this round.

4

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Torbjorn Heggem joins Albion

« on: November 28, 2024, 09:02:01 AM »

Has anyone noticed if Torbjorn Heggem's a talker and organiser or whether he just tends to concentrate on his own game? Just wondering in relation to him possibly playing alongside Caleb Taylor if he's recalled from his loan in January.

He has the last few games - it seems he's taken the lead from Bartley who normally does a lot of the organising (and finger pointing). It had never been noticeable when he featured at left back largely because his instructions came from Bartley next to him. It has been pleasing to see that he has been issuing support to both Styles and Holgate in recent weeks and bodes well for Caleb Taylor who we really need to feature within the side next year.

5

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: November 28, 2024, 08:59:17 AM »

He also said how disappointed he was ar our use of the ball when we had a chance to break so he also saw what we all saw

Which is refreshing to hear him say.  A lot of our opportunities broke down because of poor individual play where passes were either over-hit or played behind the player who was breaking.

I'm not sure that that's reflection of the manager personally. Players need to take some accountability for their own performances. 

6

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Gianluca Frabotta joins Albion

« on: November 28, 2024, 08:56:50 AM »

Racic was excellent in fairness. As was Bartley, Heggem and Styles.

None of us have seen him play bar the odd minute so I'll trust Carlos' judgement on this one.

We generally don't have any issues at the back so I'm also not surprised to see that he hasn't had many minutes.

7

Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: November 27, 2024, 02:00:31 PM »

Do we think Bartley was a straight swap positionally for Diakite or did the system change in the wake of it ?

Given CC comments in recent weeks about Diakite in a back three then I would suggest it was a straight swap.

8

Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: November 27, 2024, 08:15:41 AM »

Carlos got what he wanted but the state of our forward play is really concerning. We are absolutely hopeless at trying to progress any attack. It normally ends back with Palmer who then shanks it out of play.

A point in isolation isn’t a bad result but these run of draws that we’ve had really is starting to sting us. Today would have been an excellent point had we been able to convert some of these draws at home into wins.

9

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Gianluca Frabotta joins Albion

« on: November 27, 2024, 08:05:07 AM »

It would seem that Carlos clearly doesn’t like or trust him.

He tried everything within his power not to use him last night.

10

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Torbjorn Heggem joins Albion

« on: November 24, 2024, 11:10:48 AM »

That tackle was a thing of beauty.

11

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: System / Tactics / Personnel

« on: November 19, 2024, 01:46:47 PM »

Listened to Albion Analysis and Liquidator podcast today and lots of general chat about potential of selling Palmer in Jan/Summer. Heading into last year of contract and 100% profit so fits the Patel strategy of selling at the right time.

Griffiths getting rave reviews at Bristol Rovers in a relatively poor team. Stats are ridiculous. So we head into next season with Griffiths and Wildsmith as back up and reinvest Palmer money elsewhere.

What do you think?

I think we have to consider it.

The goalkeeper position is one where we have such luxuries really with three competent goalkeepers.

Looking ahead to the long term - Griffiths is potentially the next big sale after Fellows.

We cannot allow his development to be stifled if we're needing/wanting to become self sufficient.

If selling Palmer brings money into the club in the short term - and allows Griffiths the opportunity to develop then I am all for it.

12

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Grady Diangana

« on: November 11, 2024, 05:25:13 PM »

Always infuriating, some quality moments, some poor moments but this season just awful mainly.

Another 15k pw saved for virtually nothing end of season.

Agree with this - we've reached the point in his Albion career where he has reached the end of the road.

For the money we're paying him we're getting very little in return.

I'm not sure where his career goes from here but it certainly won't be with us.

13

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: System / Tactics / Personnel

« on: November 11, 2024, 05:23:46 PM »

I would go for my favorite set up 352
It’s attacking and defensive
What I don’t like is to see our defensive midfielders coming too deep to collect the ball from our defenders, if they lose the ball at that point then our goal is threatened
Do we have the defender to do a ‘stones’ sort of surge through the defensive midfielders and release to the wingers or to Maja to hold up etc, I think I know the answer to that one,so over to the Don.

The problem we have with this suggestion is that we have a shortage of centre halves unless you're wanting to cover our full backs into occupying the role.

Clearly, the loss of Kipre has been great as none of our current centre halves are particularly great when having to progress the ball. That is the reason why Mowatt often drops so deep.

Even when Mowatt does drop deep the two centre halves tend to split meaning we have that three at the back which allows Furlong to push further forward or into midfield.

14

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: November 11, 2024, 05:13:02 PM »

This project is long term and we are probably exactly  where our owners and gaffer expected us to be.

I think this is exactly how the owners will view it.

We're not losing games, we're competitive and our points tally this season is better than the same position last year.

Are there areas where we can improve? Undoubtedly. But I'm not sure we should be throwing our toys out the pram just yet.

15

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Alex Palmer

« on: November 11, 2024, 01:29:11 PM »

Molumby had a right go at him at one point but I can’t remember the context.

I thought it might have been because Palmer had kicked it straight to a Hull player and they’d countered but I couldn’t rewind it to check.

Indeed it was - I think it must have gone out for a goal kick and then Molumby gave him a piece of his mind.

16

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Palmer

« on: November 03, 2024, 09:48:04 AM »

Can someone work on his distribution, awful last two games.

His distribution is always awful to be honest. It’s the one area of his game that lets him down. Aside from that he’s quite assured.

17

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: John Swift

« on: October 30, 2024, 09:49:06 AM »

Don’t think I said they didn’t play any key passes or have shots,my point is we are slow,slow in transition and slow in terms of  individual movement…I agree totally on Diangana,he does more on this forum t than he does on the pitch…the only defence he has is he didn’t pay the fee nor does he pick himself.

Almost feels like those goalposts are being moved. This is what you actually said:

"all guilty of at times being slow,too deep and various degrees of being anonymous in matches"

"But if they are dropping so deep as they are.."

SmethDan has recognised that we are sometimes too slow, but it was you who singled out several players and stated that they were too deep.

SmethDan has provided an accurate assessment using the data to demonstrate that it is not the case.

18

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: John Swift

« on: October 29, 2024, 11:12:42 AM »

He is over complicating everything and at times slowing us down.

There always seems to be one extra pass which isn't needed.

19

General Football & Sports / Re: Slaven Bilic

« on: October 29, 2024, 09:27:10 AM »

Part 2 is now up but no way am I copying and pasting from that site on my phone

You have one job on this forum Gaz 

20

General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL PREMIER LEAGUE THREAD

« on: October 29, 2024, 09:26:52 AM »

Anyone know much about him?

Can't say I've paid much attention to the Portugese league.

21

General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL PREMIER LEAGUE THREAD

« on: October 28, 2024, 04:19:53 PM »

It was always a case of when it was going to happen.

They're a joke of a club.

22

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Mikey Johnston joins on permanent deal

« on: October 28, 2024, 10:25:09 AM »

Really have not been impressed with his contributions since returning to the club.

He's almost hiding whenever he plays.

A totally different player to the one who had that aura of confidence when he played for us last season.

23

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: System / Tactics / Personnel

« on: October 28, 2024, 10:16:29 AM »

CB, Furlong has generally played well enough to keep RB.  Bartley and Ajayi patchy at best.


Where do you think i was gong to suggest out of curiosity?

Well he has spent the majority of his career playing either at centre half or in midfield and seems to have become a jack of all trades.

Given the performances of Heggem and Furlong it is clear they would not be dropped. We've only conceded 7 goals all season and three of them occured in one game. 4 goals conceded in 11 games suggest we're defensively sound.

Given our problem is scoring goals I was interested to hear how you think playing McNair would have helped overcome that issue.

24

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: System / Tactics / Personnel

« on: October 28, 2024, 08:44:34 AM »

And yet neither one of you have answered the question…

25

General Football & Sports / Re: Adam Reach Released 22/5/24

« on: October 28, 2024, 12:09:17 AM »

He was rejected by Swansea. Overall, it's quite interesting to see how he's jobless right now although he's still only 31 years old. This makes me think he really was on big money with us.

His wage was higher to compensate for us not being able to afford his signing on fee.

Overall, he was an abysmal signing.