1

West Bromwich Albion FC / Signings Within Last 2 Decades

« on: August 24, 2021, 11:05:48 AM »

I have took this away from the Livermore thread.

Some people highlighted they thought our signings were particularly bad over last 10 years.  I for one don't see that.

The obvious ones -

Burke £15m
Livermore £11m
Grant £16m (jury still out)
Diangana £18m (jury still out)

I don't see anywhere else where we have made major errors like a Brewster at £25m?

2

West Bromwich Albion FC / WBA stats

« on: April 27, 2019, 06:39:48 PM »

Looking at Albion's 18/19 season in more depth.  After match 45 of league campaign (today) I looked at 2 factors:

1. Total goals scored = 145.   Of these Albion have netted 86 (59.31%).  Opposition have bagged 59 (40.69%).  So here a clear bias towards Albion scoring the majority of goals.

2. Next, I looked at who struck first in these same 45 games; Albion or Opposition.  Albion 21 times, Opposition 23 times, No Goalscorer (Reading a) 1.   This equates to Albion 46.67%, Opposition 51.11%, No Goalscorer 2.22%.

In summary, the sets of stats don't correlate.  Despite clearly having one of the best squads in the league we are generally poor in the 1st half, seemingly more comfortable going 1 behind and better on the counter attack.  This legacy of being negative seems to be a hangover from the Pulis days. 

The other factor is have the managers this season been good enough motivating the players and generally employing the correct tactics?

The worry going into the play offs is against better teams you could be out of the game anyway playing in this fashion (as at Elland Road).

3

West Bromwich Albion FC / Unbalanced Team

« on: January 12, 2013, 05:34:10 PM »

This is what we have at moment.

Reading get a head of steam up with the confidence of 1st goal, then swarm all over us.

OK the defence made individual mistakes, but the midfield are doing nothing to stop the attacks!

We have no-one to put their foot in!  Just a load of fancy dans that enjoy passing the ball.

If you watched our threat, the combination was Morrison to Lukaku every time, 2 goals scored and woodwork hit twice that would have put us 0-4 up.

Then of course we have to endure Rosenberg for 10 mins that loses us the game.

4

West Bromwich Albion FC / Undercooked Points Wise?

« on: February 12, 2012, 08:23:14 PM »

Yes we were magnificent.  Yes I'm over the moon now.

However, when the dust settles do people think we should be mid-table by now?

I think mental approach from the players has 100% to do with it.  The players need to stay motivated for all the games.  They clearly wanted to do it for the fans today and credit to them for that.

5

West Bromwich Albion FC / What Is Our Best Team And Is RH Aware Of It?

« on: February 04, 2012, 08:41:56 PM »

From what I've seen over the course of 11/12, we don't have any "standout" players.  All seem much of a muchness in terms of ability.  And we have a massive squad, some players like Tchoyi can't be happy.

RH has got to be frustrated knowing that he'll be continually let down by inconsistency.

Look at the players generally left on the sidelines, are they any worse than the guys regularly picked?  Are Thorne, Allen, Andrews, Tchoyi any worse than a midfield that's totally overated IMO?  You could even play Jara-Reyes DM.

If I was Tchoyi I would be totally drunk off not starting today after his efforts at Fulham.  I really feel as if RH could pick names from a hat and it wouldn't make much difference.

There's very few that are obviously weaker, Cox & Mattock being 2 examples.

6

West Bromwich Albion FC / Time To Revamp The Whole Team?

« on: February 04, 2012, 05:24:13 PM »

Just think there's many players who haven't had any / little game time yet.  I'm drunk off with these so called inexperienced players letting us down.  Why don't we play the following team:

Foster
Jones
Ridgewell
Olsson
McAauley
Thorne
Allen
Andrews
Tchoyi
Long
Fortune

This team surely could not be much worse.....

7

West Bromwich Albion FC / Zero Pace / Athleticism Throughout The Team

« on: February 04, 2012, 04:59:51 PM »

I've just watched the Swansea stream. 

The above is the commodity we lack IMO.  This is why we are losing all these games at home.  I think our fastest players from last season - PO and YM have both lost half a yard of pace.  We just don't stretch teams at home, there's no width, no flair, no excitement.  It's just sideways, crab football.  The only time we looked like scoring was from a set piece. 

Quite frankly our players like like pensioners playing in divers boots.  If Andrews / Ridgewell can't get back into this side there's something clearly wrong.  You look at Swansea, the player in possession has 5 or 6 options to pass to.  Our players have none as the midfield are too slow to support. 

8

West Bromwich Albion FC / Refs Against Albion

« on: January 21, 2012, 05:10:04 PM »

Fantastic win - on cloud 9.

However, this is beyond a joke.  How many penalties have we had against us in 11/12?

We should compile a dossier of the injustice and complain.  Lets stick 2 fingers up to them - scumbags.

All refs are trying it on against us.

Todays wasn't even close.

9

West Bromwich Albion FC / Albion Complacency

« on: January 16, 2012, 10:33:52 PM »

I think from the top of the club down we're complacent.

There's no desire from Peace to:

a) Increase capacity.
b) Lower ridiculous ticket prices.
c) Pay for quality players on higher wages.
d) Remove deadwood on frees enabling a compact squad.
e) Reach top 10.
f) Communicate / engage with the fans.

Then there's Roy's situation.  A 64 year old manager.  Is he staying?  Is he retiring?  Is he happy with no transfer funds?  What ambition does he have for this season / future seasons?

Then onto the players.  A squad IMO lacking motivation.  There's players there for the long haul, not improve, just pick up wages, basically treading water.  Why are we still relying on Brunt, Morrison, Bednar 5 years down the line surely we can do better with our accumulated funds?  You've proably now got Scharner, Shorey, Cox, Thomas, Reid etc wanting similar long stays.  Look at Meite we needed a pickaxe to move him on!

We seem to be drifting aimlessly as a club.  Our media repuation is appalling.  We're regarded as unfashionable, small-time and not worth talking about. 

It's about time we stood up and showed what we can be as a club! 

Having stayed up we need to impose ourselves not play 2nd fiddle to Swansea & Norwich amongst others.

10

West Bromwich Albion FC / Swansea - A Benchmark For WBA?

« on: January 15, 2012, 07:35:25 PM »

I've just been royally entertained watching a team built on peanuts.  Their sweeping passing football really is something else, the kind of stuff WBA used to be renowned for. 

When I look at it most of our players aren't fit to lace their boots.  Graham v Bednar / Fortune / Cox.
Allen v Scharner,  Britton v Morrison, Dyer / Sinclair v Thomas, Sigurdsson v Brunt etc.

Our men just look so slow compared to Swansea.  We've got a shedload of players just not up to it I'm afraid and they're all experienced too.

It's embarrassing.  This is why on other threads I state CLEAROUT.  In the premier you need to be quick not ponderous like us.

11

West Bromwich Albion FC / Why Doesn't RH Know His Best XI After 12 Months?

« on: January 15, 2012, 07:24:15 AM »

I'm a Hodgson fan and we do have many injuries at present.

But after working with the players day-in-day-out for a year, why does RH persist in swapping our team about so much?  Classic example Cox scores hat trick against Cardiff reserves then gets picked, but was nowhere for 5 months until now.  Tchoyi gets a premier league hat-trick and disappears.  Thorne plays v Spurs then is axed.  Dorrans in out shake it all about.  Fortune brought onto the pitch when he can't score for Doncaster.  Mozza back to right wing when his best performances are CM.  Why can't we just ship 12 people out and start afresh.  Many players don't have a consistent run.  This muddled thinking is killing us. 

Roy is with them every day in training surely he can see who's capable and who isn't?

12

West Bromwich Albion FC / Have This Squad Hit Rock Bottom?

« on: January 14, 2012, 07:54:38 PM »

It's just not working is it?

In the last month we've lost at home to 3 dire teams: Wigan, Everton, Norwich.  We know we can play because we wouldn't have won at Newcastle, Villa etc.

To lose once (Wigan) you would say it was stupid.  To do it a 2nd time (Everton) you'd say careless.  But to do it a 3rd time (Norwich) you'd say completely inexplicable.

What the hell are these players doing?  I fully expect relegation - I just don't know where we go from here.  Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.  We just seem determined to make things hard for ourselves.  I'd rather Roy just played the kids TBH and set their careers up, at least they might be fired up.  How can we throw everything away?  We were a stable premier team and have just lost it.

13

West Bromwich Albion FC / Clearout Required

« on: January 14, 2012, 05:00:35 PM »

We were useless today against what is basically a championship Norwich.  2 shots did they have?

It's time to wield the axe.  How many more home games are we going to lose against inferior opposition?  This is becoming a sick joke!

This is no "off the cuff" topic.  In the last month we've lost to Wigan, Everton & Norwich who all looked dire to me.

These players do not cut it: Morrison, Cox, Scharner, Fortune and maybe more.

14

West Bromwich Albion FC / Midfield Without Mulumbu

« on: January 01, 2012, 03:16:26 PM »

As a unit they're just not good enough.  We lost the midfield battle and made Everton look like Real Madrid.  We just haven't got enough pace in there.

If Mulumbu is absent we must play 4-5-1 to make up for the lack of speed as stated above.  Long is starting to fade a bit in my opinion (although I still rate him).

If Roy stcks with 4-4-2 why not try Thorne?  How will you ever know if he's good enough?  Scharner was a carthorse today.  I think Mulumbu is world class or very near to it.

If Everton were good I wouldn't mind but I thought they were awful as well.  Today reminded me of the Premier days under Mowbray where we passed the ball to death at a snails pace!

15

West Bromwich Albion FC / Hawthorns Atmosphere

« on: January 01, 2012, 03:02:24 PM »

The players are waiting for the fans to make noise before the game.  The fans are waiting to be excited by the players before getting behind the team.  The result is no noise inside the stadium, which inspires the opposition.

7 goals from 10 home matches sees it all.

Also JP is totally out of order charging £40 in a recession and it's live on sky.

That preformance was absymal.  If we repeat it we are going to lose our confidence and with our best 2 players on the sidelines.