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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: 10 Nov 2024 Hull City 1 Albion 2
« on: November 10, 2024, 02:52:32 PM »
This is dangerous
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: 10 Nov 2024 Hull City 1 Albion 2
« on: November 10, 2024, 02:37:12 PM »There's bigger problems in the squad than Grady giving the ball away sometimes.
What crawled up your backside
He is A problem, that’s for sure
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: 10 Nov 2024 Hull City 1 Albion 2
« on: November 10, 2024, 02:33:40 PM »He's always been inconsistent but lately he is atrocious. Could do with a Watford/QPR/Millwall type coming for him
No one will be in for him sadly, we remain saddled with his £20k plus a week wage for the rest of the season
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: 10 Nov 2024 Hull City 1 Albion 2
« on: November 10, 2024, 02:30:49 PM »
Grady is just awful, isn’t he. Can’t keep possession in the slightest
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: 10 Nov 2024 Hull City 1 Albion 2
« on: November 10, 2024, 02:19:05 PM »
What the bleep are we doing. Idiots
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: 10 Nov 2024 Hull City 1 Albion 2
« on: November 10, 2024, 02:15:11 PM »
Fellows has been poor again. Concerned at maja going off so early
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: 10 Nov 2024 Hull City 1 Albion 2
« on: November 10, 2024, 01:57:34 PM »
They are their for the taking, we just need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot with sloppiness
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: 10 Nov 2024 Hull City 1 Albion 2
« on: November 10, 2024, 01:24:48 PM »
WHAT ARE MY EYES SEEING??! Two goals!!
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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: System / Tactics / Personnel
« on: November 09, 2024, 03:49:34 PM »Are you actually saying that Maja is a lesser player than Brandon Thomas Asante??
Concerning if so. Capacity test required
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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: System / Tactics / Personnel
« on: November 09, 2024, 11:46:58 AM »Over the summer we lost the spine of last years team Kipre, Okay, and BTA . With all due respect the replacements hey aren’t as good ! Losing BTA left us with nobody that “ runs in behind “ as the saying goes . Despite this we are still around the play off positions . Is it good to watch , no , but it is a case of cutting your cloth accordingly !
If by ‘runs in behind’ you mean ‘constantly finds himself offside and making terrible runs’ then you’d be correct about BTA, no loss in the slightest. The other two were big losses, though
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate
« on: November 08, 2024, 08:42:07 PM »Who are you leaving out for Diakite ?
You’d say Mowatt, who has been in the top 3 of our best players this season…
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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: System / Tactics / Personnel
« on: November 08, 2024, 04:23:06 PM »
Grant and Maja aside, none of the other attacking options have shown anything to merit deserving selection, save perhaps for Dobbin who has yet to have a chance from the start and looked bright last night.
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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan
« on: November 08, 2024, 10:00:45 AM »How can you be so sure that he "knows what he's doing"? and in what sense?
If you mean he knows how to get a team out of this division (which is Bilkul's aim) then there is no evidence to back this up.
The evidence, thus far, points to a pragmatic head coach that consistently picks up points. Is that enough? It was great when we were rock bottom under Steve Bruce and Carlos was exactly what we needed back then, and it was great at Huddersfield when there was no expectation on them and no one expected them to finish inside the top six. The question though is: is Carlos Corberan what we need now?
If you (the general you, it's nothing personal) don't at least have your doubts you can't be thinking objectively because there absolutely has to be a question mark.
I don't believe any club would ever get relegated under CC (at this level or below) because his approach pretty.much guarantees that, as does his attention to detail in terms of what his teams do off the ball.
At the same time I don't see any Corberan team ever winning a league either (at this level). He (CC) isn't dynamic enough in his footballing mentality nor is he a brave enough head coach.
In order to get out of this league the minimum position we can finish is sixth and then you have the relative lottery of the play offs.
The questions Bilkul have to ask themselves are:
1 Do we believe CC can deliver this?
2 Is it enough?
The second question is particularly interesting as a new, more dynamic head coach COULD potentially have us challenging for the top two in a league that appears weaker than last season with no stand out teams in it. You could argue we SHOULD be aiming for the top two.
Because hasn't Fritzl always been right when it comes to managers?
You will recall that, despite many on here thinking all was fine with Pulis toward the end of his final full season with us, I was the one calling for us to make the change in the summer from Jan/Feb that season as I could see that it had become stale and the writing was on the wall for how it would go if we let him continue into the following season as the players had stopped playing for him. Instead John Williams gives him a new contract and, of course, by the November of the following season it was absolutely horrendous and he was sacked and we all know what happened after that, from which we still haven't recovered.
Then we give Darren Moore the job on a temporary basis and things pick up and most on here are calling for him to be given the position full time. I said at the time it would be a terrible decision if we did, the players were always going to pick up when the pressure was off as we were relegated in all but name and, of course, when we do give him the job full time he proves not to be at the level and has us well away from the automatic places despite having a very strong squad at this level.
Steve Bruce was, again, a terrible shout from the outset and you could see from a couple of games in that it was going to be as such as there was no tactical training or strategy present during the entirety of his tenure with us. I called it early doors again there and was proven right.
So I feel that I have a decent track record when it comes to predicting how things will go under our managerial appointments
You say that finishing sixth or above would be the goal, and in his time here, he has us finishing there or above. In his first season he took us from bottom of the league to flirting with the play offs at the end of the season, so he clearly amassed enough points during his time that if that was extended for the full season we would have been top six and then last season we of course finished fifth. We are currently sat in fifth once more, 6 points off the automatic places, so I see no reason to doubt that we can make the top six once more despite the blip we are currently in, which every team will face at some stage this season.
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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Lewis Dobbin signs on loan - official
« on: November 08, 2024, 08:44:48 AM »
He did look bright in fairness and would have a very good case for knocking down CC's door for a start with how poor the likes of Diangana, Wallace, Swift, Fellows and MJ have been the past 8 games.
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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan
« on: November 08, 2024, 08:43:57 AM »I am a big Carlos fan but i think the last 8 games of doing the same thing, he does deserve criticism, i could understand giving a system a few games of poor performances to try and turn it round but after the same thing time and time again with no real signs of improvement, he has to look at himself too.
I do think he is hampered by having an average squad, the two real quality outfield players we had last season (Kipre and Yokoslu) both were snapped up to play at a better level, there is a reason the likes of Barley and Mowatt werent snapped up on frees by higher ranked clubs, same reason as why Swift and Wallace werent either and instead we got them.
Most of our squad are average to decent championship players, i would expect most managers would get us a top half finish, the league is poor and we are one of twelve clubs who could finish anywhere between top and halfway, if we finish top two CC has done a great job, top six a good job, anything outside that an average job this season.
He is shuffling the same pack player wise, even the summer signings we made were low fee low risk because that where we are financially, the likes of Racic, Diakite, Cole, Holgate, MJ, Frambotta and Styles were all players at some stage in the past were known as players with potential, whether its injury, bad moves, long period of poor form, they had stalled, CC is a good coach and would imagine most he would think he can improve, whether he can get them to championship and beyond level is another thing, its a numbers game, if you sign 6 players like that, you may get 2 do well, 2 do okay and 2 dont make it.
Its a similar approach to the Ashworth days, for every Mulumbu, Dorrans and Yacob there was a Rueben Reid, Tininho and Sherjil Macdonald! Thats where we are as club and so CC isnt really getting chance to sign players who are guarenteed to improve us, he is having to work with gambles.
That said everyone knows how we play and its a tough watch, of the number 10's we have tried Swift and Diangana have had enough chances this season and previous ones and shown they arent really the answer, so we either need to try a new player there and give them an actual run of games or chance the system.
Teams know we pass about at the back before getting it to the full back and they play the safe pass of ten yards to the winger, by which time they are set back in position, we have nobody with any dynamic coming from centre midfield, the number 10's are doing nothing and Maja is heavily marked so not getting the best out of him.
Due to our lack of strikers Maja has to play there but he has a good football brain and technique and would be a good number 10, i would be going 3-5-2, play Fellows and Styles as wingbacks, Furlong and Heggem either side of Holgate for the three CB's and they can do what our full backs currently do.
Positives we dont concede but something has to change going forward, its not bad luck anymore, its just the wrong approach, CC has done a great job over the last two years and its been pretty much an upward trajectory since he took over and this is his first dip / rut and he has to make sure it doesnt go on any longer as its becoming a pyschogical thing, i worry if things dont change it could go the way of Ismael with the fans when even though we were around the top they turned due to the performances, i dont think we are there yet and hopefully it will never get there.
As stated i am a big fan of his still and have faith in him to turn it round, he is still only 5 or 6 years into his coaching career and this is a big test that he doesnt become too stubborn and set in his ways and realises you do have to chance a setuo rather than swapping player like for like in the same positions.
I was told that the owners were keen to talk about a new contact the start of the season but it was Nestor who wanted to see how things went with a view to offering a new one if all went to plan (which CC was happy with too)
Excellent post.
I am as frustrated as anyone with our current run of form, but I do back CC to turn it around and, let's face it, despite the poor form and frankly awful, at times, performances, we remain fifth and very difficult for other teams to beat so it is not as bad as certain people are making it out to be. It could, of course, get worse from here but, conversely, as I expect it to, it could get a lot better.
Try and keep the faith, people. He is not a Steve Bruce, he does know what he is doing.
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat
« on: November 07, 2024, 08:51:11 PM »Palmer scares me with the ball at his feet
Overall even half with both teams having moments but you have to say we have created very little again with Burnley looking the more likely to score
We do seem to be getting more players in the box though
Such a good shot stopper one on one though. Seriously needs to work on his kicking game
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat
« on: November 07, 2024, 08:48:53 PM »Wouldn't be surprised to see a red card at some point tonight
It’s got that feel about it in fairness.
We just desperately need a scruffy win to instil some confidence
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat
« on: November 07, 2024, 08:21:15 PM »
We look like a team who haven’t won in 7…
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General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL CHAMPIONSHIP THREAD
« on: November 07, 2024, 07:14:08 PM »I don't think he'll be out of work for too long.
Definitely not, though you do wonder how big an impact Viveash had as it was after he left that is seems to have gone downhill massively
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General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL CHAMPIONSHIP THREAD
« on: November 07, 2024, 02:09:57 PM »I have to say I thought BTA would do a lot better than 1 in 12 whilst at Cov. I know he wasn't the best but I thought he would have at least 3 or something by now.
I think people vastly overrate him because he runs around a lot. Takes a lot more than that at this level, sadly.
No doubt, based on his statement when he left us blaming CC for his lack of goals, it is all the fault of Robbins that he hasn’t scored more
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General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL EUROPEAN FOOTBALL THREAD
« on: November 07, 2024, 01:35:02 PM »
I see Arteta was booked for touching the ball whilst it was in play yesterday. I said at the time, Corberan will be the only manager sent off for doing that.
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General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL CHAMPIONSHIP THREAD
« on: November 07, 2024, 11:55:31 AM »
If he played any part in them spending over £2m on signing BTA from us, it is probably deserved
Glad they did though!
Coventry fans on the whole seemingly very unhappy with the sacking
Glad they did though!
Coventry fans on the whole seemingly very unhappy with the sacking
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: Pre Match Chat
« on: November 06, 2024, 01:13:39 PM »I have seen nothing yet that says Johnston should be starting !
The point is very true, however, at some stage you have to be giving the man you have decided to spend a significant transfer fee for the first time in a few years on a run of games to get him up to speed. Ultimately, Diangana has had a run of starts and has been utterly dire so MJ would be well within his rights to ask for the same.
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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat
« on: November 01, 2024, 09:26:48 PM »
Thank god for them pair finally getting hooked