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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: November 23, 2021, 10:33:24 PM »

I'm not sure what your begging to disagree with.  My point is he is going nowhere as the Chinese owners have invested heavily in him.  Do you think the current board will pay any attention to what the fans think? It might not be enjoyable, but then the owner is not here to watch it.

I’m disagreeing with your view that the owners won’t sack him.

You see, like you, I couldn’t understand why the Albion paid compensation to Barnsley and award Val a 4 year contract, but didn’t financially back him with any money in the 2021 summer transfer window. Then as time has wore on this season I’ve realised Val was the cheap option who’d tow the party line.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: November 23, 2021, 10:22:16 PM »

Wow!!  WHO is going to sack him??? The same owner that sanctioned his appointment against the wishes of the then DOF and handed over a FOUR year contract??  And the owners choice has got the team in third, in the shake up for promotion and hasn't spent a penny in transfers.

Criticise him yes, but be under no illusions that he will be going anywhere unless we plummet down the division like a stone.

I beg to disagree there. This forum is already divided on him and most of the Albion lads I know either don’t rate Val or are indifferent to him.

Who actually enjoys watching the Albion at the moment??

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: November 23, 2021, 10:18:12 PM »

It doesn’t - you have no idea what he’s like behind the scenes and he’s not going to publicly criticise his employer.

This was his line three weeks ago - it’s clear he wants better quality. He’s in the same boat as the rest of us.

” For sure we want the next step in transfers with quality players who make the difference.“   

I’m not a massive lover of Val and the stubbornness he has showed so far. I also think we might struggle on Friday.

But you can be objectionable, which I am being tonight. It was better than anything we’ve seen in recent weeks and a game we should have won - regardless of his limitations.

But Liam, in fairness, don’t most football managers want to bring in quality who make a difference during each transfer window?

Personally, I don’t think we can trust Val in a transfer window.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Guochuan Lai

« on: November 23, 2021, 10:14:46 PM »

Every day they’re here it’s worth less.

It’s the one thing I’ll give the Dingles credit for: when they want an owner out…boy oh boy do they turn hostile.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Guochuan Lai

« on: November 23, 2021, 10:06:03 PM »

He won’t even know we’re playing.

They want out themselves - there just doesn’t appear to be a buyer.

Not for the price the owners are asking.

It took Peace a while to find these numpties and that was when the Albion were a more attractive prospect.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: November 23, 2021, 10:02:46 PM »

This above is exactly what i think

But tonight was a far better performance and I can't blame Val for what's been missed tonight and the tools at his disposal. It's like asking somebody to mow the lawn with grass seed.

Does he need to be flexible - absolutely. Would i pull the trigger - no. I'm sick of us not backing a manager and then expecting the moon on a stick and then firing for the next one.

Lewis, we’re almost 20 games into the season and Val hasn’t once demonstrated he has the ability to be a flexible manager. If it hasn’t happened nearly 20 games in, who are you trying to kid about backing him as a manager - me or yourself?

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: November 23, 2021, 09:47:54 PM »

I see it this way too.

Hugill was absolutely dire! Grant should put two away. Blackpool defended brilliantly. The problem is the team is poor and VI needs backing.

I just don't see it the way others do here I'm afraid.

You can’t see the wood for the trees, Lewis. We’ve scored one goal in our last five away games. Let that sink in. One solitary goal in just over 450 minutes of football played away from home…

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: November 23, 2021, 09:45:30 PM »

Quicker but bingo ball is killing us .

Val needs to go Dexy. This was a bad appointment by the board.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: November 23, 2021, 09:44:07 PM »

1 goal scored in our last 5 away games !!

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 09:38:45 PM »

can't disagree with you, but keep slating individuals ain't helping,  they are all equally as bad, utter garbage from owner, chairman, players and Manager.

Owner, chairman, board and players we’re stuck with.

The manager, well, he’s much more easily expendable. And he’s toss too.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 09:34:32 PM »

How can anyone blame this on Val?

Go and dunk your head in an ice cold bucket of water, you wind-up merchant!

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 09:33:26 PM »

What screw up you on about now? We get it you don't like Furlong. Haven't you got anything else to comment on? This is boring now.

What’s boring is this utter garbage being churned out by Val.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 09:20:58 PM »

Same at the weekend absolutely pathetic

More excuses to be made at FT no doubt.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 09:18:09 PM »

Furlong, absolutely utterly useless

Yet he’ll play every minute of every game as Val’s attacking threat of choice

That’s how rubbish we’ve become.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 09:03:33 PM »

Phillips up top is a sackable offence in itself.

We’re coming up to the infamous 60 minute mark…

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 08:36:50 PM »

I didnt watch any of that tbf

It wasn’t pretty for Albion fans to watch after the kiss of death from Daniel Levy.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 08:29:56 PM »

I don't think i've seen such a rapid and drastic drop in a player than i have Diangana since his injury.

Berahino, lol?

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 08:27:53 PM »

It is if you cantr buy the players he needs.

Too right Gaz. Typical miser behaviour of the morons that own and run our football club.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 08:25:11 PM »

The whole thing is a mess. Why appoint someone who needs money for a rebuild and then give no funds. Doesn't excuse VI tactical ineptness though at same time. He can do much better than he is doing.

Val was the Albion boards fourth choice manager.

Our young and inexperienced Chinese CEO foolishly thought Val could get results with very little money being invested based upon him taking Barnsley into the play-offs last season.

Val on the other hand has players that can’t/won’t play his style of football and no money to bring in the type of players who are capable.

Bad, bad appointment.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 23, 2021, 08:17:23 PM »

These players seem to have gone massively backwards under VI

Somethings not right between the players and manager. Whether he’s losing/lost the dressing room I don’t know. But all’s not well…

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General Football & Sports / Re: Valérien Ismaël - Head Coach

« on: November 21, 2021, 10:57:00 PM »

OK, given the players we have, what would you do differently?


As I've said previously, I have no claims to understand advanced football tactics.

I understand why VI adopts the tactics he does, even though I don't particularly like the resulting aesthetics.

As I see it we have two problems;

We have the highest number of goals conceded from mistakes in the championship.

We also are top of the league for expected goals, which would suggest that we are creating chances but not converting them.

Cut out our mistakes at the back, and convert more of our chances & we're back in contention.

What we're experiencing at the moment is poor results, the aesthetics has never been good during VI's tenure.

Val would do better adopting a formation that incorporates a flat back four, so either 4-5-1 or 4-4-2. That would probably go a long way in reducing the mistakes at the back.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Valérien Ismaël - Head Coach

« on: November 21, 2021, 10:54:32 PM »

Given the increasing clamour for Valerien to be sacked, perhaps it's time to roll out a few stats. Firstly, his win percentage (league only) is currently 50%. I appreciate that sustaining that over a lengthy period for a club like ours is nigh on impossible but, to find an Albion manager who was in charge for 18 games or more who achieved a higher or equal win percentage than that during his time with us, you have to go back to Ossie Ardiles. Prior to that, it was Jesse Carver (1952-53) and before that...well there wasn't anyone.

Secondly, some people persist with comparing our current style of play to that of Pulis. We had 20 attempts on goal yesterday (as an aside, I think it's reasonable to regard a goal attempt as a chance) and I suspect that we never had 20 attempts on goal in a single game when Pulis was here, but I'm willing to be proven wrong if someone is determined enough to do so! The respective styles of play of Ismael and Pulis are simply not comparable in my view.

The "get the ball forward quickly and chase it down" style that there was too much of earlier in the season has gone, to the extent that we've now significantly dominated possession in a number of recent games, yesterday being an example (64.4%). Despite that change, the balance between the number of attempts for and those against has generally continued to be significantly in our favour.

People keep fretting about our high defensive line and yet only 2 clubs have conceded fewer goals than we have (Fulham and Bournemouth), so things don't appear to be anything like as bad defensively as some are making it out to be.

At the other end, for all the comments about our powder-puff attack and us creating a dearth of chances, only 4 teams have scored more goals than we have (Fulham, Bournemouth, QPR and Blackburn). 3 of those 4 clubs have individual players who've scored at least 14 goals so far.

Consequently, our goal difference remains the third best in the division.

Some other stats from whoscored.com

• Average shots for per game: 2nd (15.6)
• Average shots against per game: 1st (8 )
• Average possession percentage: 6th (53.5%)
• Average pass success percentage: 23rd (66.2%)

The final stat above is being improved upon lately of course (it was 79% yesterday).

Rather than dishing out endless brickbats to the manager, perhaps greater criticism would be more appropriately aimed at the Board for failing to sign a striker in the summer who would be capable of scoring 10+ goals?

If people regard the above stats and being third in the table as being deserving of the sack, perhaps the Club needs to switch to a model where managers only get a 6 month initial contract to determine whether the fans like them or not and then they get jettisoned if more than 50% of the fans want them to go, otherwise they get a longer contract. I'm sure such a short-termist approach would reap dividends..... 

Pretty sure Val said he was happy with the squad prior to the summer transfer window closing. Those were his words I believe, not the WBA board.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Valérien Ismaël - Head Coach

« on: November 21, 2021, 08:58:11 PM »

It's been a while since I managed people, but I found the "kis (keep it simple) principle" to be a useful guideline.

I also wouldn't profess to have a detailed understanding of modern football tactics, but from observations:
We line up with 3 at the back, 4 in midfield & 3 at the front.
When we attack, the 2 wide midfield players push forward to give us 5 at the front
When we defend the 2 wide midfield players drop back to give us 5 at the back, at the same time 1 or 2 of the front players come into the midfield areas to retrieve the ball, which can come from  either a ground or aerial route.

Now this, to me, is a pretty complex process, so to add on another one or two similarly complex processes would be absolutely mind blowing, even as an elite sportsman.

So I can see why VI doesn't have a plan B, we just need to get better at plan A.

Three months into the season and the performances are getting worse, not better.

Val wasn’t the fourth choice manager for no reason. He’s a really poor footballing tactician.

Here’s a useful keep it simple principle for Val - should he not pick up at least 4 points in the next two games…pack his bags and show him the door!

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General Football & Sports / Re: Valérien Ismaël - Head Coach

« on: November 21, 2021, 03:09:36 PM »

To me, the defense picks the ball up in their half and there is no outlet for them so they play it sideways or back...then back to midfield who see no outlet so back it goes until it's played out wide where it's 3 against 1 as this formation has been telegraphed since mid September. 

This is what needs to be worked on.... immediately or the season will drift away.

You can see that Bosh, as can others. And yet, Val’s too damn stubborn to do anything about it. It’ll cost him his job.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Valérien Ismaël - Head Coach

« on: November 21, 2021, 02:11:37 PM »

Bournemouth beaten by Derby today. I wonder if Parker facing calls for his dismissal.

In fairness to Scotty Parker, he hasn’t just lost 4 away games on the bounce. Plus his football is palatable.