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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: Yesterday at 05:57:32 PM »

I generally try to not overewct to individual results - I wasn't trying to get carried away when Mikey Johnston was firing in rockets from 20 yards every week, and neither am I totally concerned about these last three losses. We looked in control Vs Sunderland until BTA's red, and we gave Leicester as good as they gave us - plenty of people were saying how threatening we looked with Wallace up front and we should have been 3-0 by the time they scored their first.

Carlos can't control those things, as much as some fans will try to pin things on him.

Looking at the underlying numbers, our attack has been up and down all season, but it's our defence that has worsened as the season has progressed.

Palmer's shot-stopping, by the numbers, is net neutral, so the quality and quantity of chances we give up tends to be consistent with how many goals are scored against us. I haven't the time to look into why we are giving up better chances of late, but fatigue will definitely play a factor.

In terms of signings, I'm not overwhelmed by the players he's brought in, but we know that the recruitment team at the club have a poor record, and we don't know to what extent CC is involved in the identification of targets, Vs having sign off on what is presented to him. He seems to be very detail focused so I would be surprised if he isn't involved in the process.

As for not improving players, I think Kipré, Mowatt and Furlong are all better players than they have been for us before. The likes of Wallace have also spoken of the individual coaching he gives, highlighting things in their game to improve.

I do wonder if his approach is a little too disciplinarian, however. Daily weigh-ins must grate on some players.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA NEW OWNERS - Bilkul football

« on: Yesterday at 04:26:53 PM »

Having spent the best part of twenty minutes going through Championship squads on Transfermarkt I can confirm two things. Firstly you are correct and secondly I should have saved myself the time because I already knew there weren't plenty of 16 to 17 year olds getting regular Championship football. Lesson learned  .

Bologna don't have a 16-17 year old getting regular minutes either, if that helps? 

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA NEW OWNERS - Bilkul football

« on: Yesterday at 04:04:26 PM »

I've seen those quotes, and it's the model Bologna have been successful with so I'm quietly optimistic he'll implement similar with us.

The fact I see fans classing 25-27 year olds like Palmer, BTA and Maja as 'young' talent just shows how poorly this club has managed the squad since the Pulis era. There's 16-17 year olds playing regularly in this division.

There's one 16-17 year old who I think you could classify as playing regularly - Chris Rigg at Sunderland has 758 minutes across 20 games, and he hasn't completed 90 minutes at all.

If we move into 18 year olds, however, we find quite a few more - Archie Gray and  Jobe Bellingham have over 3000 minutes each, while Ashley Phillips and Bailey-Tye Cadamarteri have over 1000 each.

For reference, Tom Fellows has 1431 and is 20 years old.

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Last Match Forum - 27/04 Sheffield Wednesday (A) / Re: Pre Match Chat

« on: April 27, 2024, 11:08:13 AM »

As Carlos has said - last 25 games, they're only 3 points worse off than us. Going to be tough

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Announcements, Feedback & Questions / Re: Forum Issue

« on: April 22, 2024, 04:00:04 AM »

By that I mean, in the bar for each section, next to Unread Messages on the right hand side, there's a little + that will minimise or maximise each section

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Announcements, Feedback & Questions / Re: Forum Issue

« on: April 22, 2024, 03:59:04 AM »

When I log in I can only see files for Woodman , General Sports etc can’t see WBA file or transfer forum . When I log out I see the missing headings can read them but obviously can’t post ??

Have you clicked the little "plus" button on the corner of the home screen?

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Brandon Thomas-Asante

« on: April 18, 2024, 01:59:01 PM »

I would rather have BTA than Karlan Grant, regardless of how much we spent on each, and neither are supposedly centre forwards. BTA over Callum Robinson too

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General Football & Sports / Re: Anything England Football

« on: April 16, 2024, 11:16:58 AM »

When he came in, Southgate (along with Dan Ashworth) definitely changed the approach of the national team from picking either "the best" players, or "the form" players, and treated it more like a club where there was a settled core of players who would work across multiple international periods to learn the patterns of play and style that Southgate wants. My personal opinion is that Southgate and his coaching team, e.g. Steve Holland, over-achieved from low expectations in Russia 2018, but since expectations have been higher, there have been missed opportunities, e.g. the Euros final Vs Italy.

The reason this is important for the Premier League is it's not about whether player X or Y is in form - if they haven't been in the setup before, they are unlikely to make a squad and even less likely to play.

This is of course just an outside observation - I don't know Southgate's selection policy, but it was pretty well documented that is the structure he and Ashworth wanted to have. It gives much greater stability and allows for more complex tactical structure, but the majority downside is it takes away a lot of flexibility and definitely makes it seem like he has his favourites who are undroppable regardless of form (or in Maguire's case in the past... actually playing at all)

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Brandon Thomas-Asante

« on: April 16, 2024, 06:03:46 AM »

Two stats that highlight Brandon's season - he's basically on course to have his goals equal his xG, which means he is about as good as the chances he gets. Like BalisPen has said, he has a tendency to score some very good goals but miss easier chances, but this balances out over season.

Per 90 minutes he has the fewest touches for any player on the team. Second lowest is Andi Weimann, and third is Tom Fellows. Yet BTA is fifth for miscontrols per 90 and 4th for being dispossessed (with bit-part players ahead of him e.g. TGH and Caleb Taylor).

This doesn't look at his role in our press, which is very important, but it does support what some people have said - his control/touch isn't great, and in terms of finishing, he's about average, though he does miss "easier" chances and make up for it by scoring harder ones.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA FC Financial report 22/23 published

« on: April 11, 2024, 06:11:15 PM »

I don't really know what it all means but some interesting notes from the accounts say we drew down £4m of the O'Shea money via a UK bank, with a 2 year repayment period and and 8.5% interest.

I think we already knew this but the Wisdom Smart loan is now repaid

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA FC Financial report 22/23 published

« on: April 11, 2024, 12:26:24 PM »

Financial reports are actually on Companies House now. Loss of £7.6m

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07230595/filing-history

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

« on: April 10, 2024, 02:00:21 AM »

Not saying Furlong and Townsend are perfect by any means, but most managers are reluctant to rotate defenders. There has to be alot of trust and understanding between the back 4 players (and the keeper) , and if you are chopping and changing too often, they have to re-adapt to one another.

I agree, but the level of non-rotation I had in my head was much larger.

Furlong has not started two games this season - Millwall at home & Coventry away. He came off the bench for 14 & 10 minutes respectively in those games, so he has played in every league game this season.

He has only not finished a game he started on five occasions, which is more than I thought, though the earliest he's been subbed is the 79th minute.

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

« on: April 09, 2024, 09:35:46 AM »

BTA is 25 but I get your drift. As an aside he's seen a lot of football largely on his own up front when in an ideal world he'd have seen a lot of rotation.

Ah good spot.

And yes - last season he rotated with Dike - this year he's largely played 90s mins every game until he got injured

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

« on: April 09, 2024, 07:58:46 AM »

Completely agree with this. We have a number of players who are looking very leg weary and a bit stale. Obviously no idea of the players physical and mental states at this time of the season. I believe our squad is one of the oldest in the division though and no one can deny it's been stretched due to injuries.

Weighted by minutes, we have the oldest squad in the league. I think it's noticeable also how we don't rotate at full back - it's a guarantee that Furlong and Townsend will start and more often than not play 90 minutes.

Outfield players in order of minutes this season:

Furlong
Kipré
Mowatt
Yokuslu
Townsend
Wallace
BTA
Bartley

The youngest is 27, and four are over 30 years old.

Also worth noting, our PPDA, passes allowed per defensive action (a measure of how active we are in defence) is I think 2nd lowest, which suggests we aren't very active in defence. While we do press, it seems we're more content to sit in a mid block and stifle opponents than press and harry. I don't have it by game, but my inkling is this number has crept up as the season has worn on, - i.e. we've become less active defensively.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Atmosphere at Home Games

« on: April 09, 2024, 05:59:11 AM »

Unfortunately you won't find many threads about this topic as we had to ban them due to all the childish bickering and arguing that the thread descended into.

3 - Atmosphere, sitting/ standing, Brummie/ Smethwick and Rangers/ Celtic topics will automatically be removed from the site as they are amongst the most common problems.

Hopefully as its been a while now since we've had any people can discuss them like adults again.

Just reiterating Oldbury's earlier post, especially the bit I've bolded. Hopefully everyone can have a sensible discussion.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Play off Points Target

« on: April 07, 2024, 09:46:47 AM »

5 games left, we might just hang on bur were running out of time to build the momentum needed to win the play offs. We will be facing 2 sides well above us in the table, and then likely Boro or Coventry who will have the momentum to take us on.

We might start go gel in the likes of Phillips and Maja in the last few league games, but running out of time to do so.

As I've said in the Corberan thread, some of the data points to us getting worse in recent weeks, despite picking up points. Five games left and players to return means we still have the opportunity to turn things around before the play offs, and I back Corberan to resolve these issues.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Atmosphere at Home Games

« on: April 07, 2024, 08:25:17 AM »

I think conflating atmosphere with young person season tickets is possibly the wrong way of looking at things. I was under the impression that the 16-25 age group was seen as an area where the club did poorly in attracting fans, and hence the business decision to release those season tickets.

That, to me, is a long term, strategic decision to attract fans over multiple years. Maybe in their first year they only come 5 times, but with a cheaper price they come back in year two. Eventually they'll age out into full adult prices, and by that point they've hopefully developed enough bond to either commit to an adult season ticket, or they will pick and choose for multiple matches a season, but at least you've brought in a fan who might otherwise have been put off attending.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: April 07, 2024, 04:51:02 AM »

Controversial opinion, but I think we've been riding our luck for several games now. Not every game, but I think you can go back to February and say that on the whole, we haven't been convincing. I've mentioned previously that when Johnston came into the team and was scoring bangers from 20 yards, that isn't a sustainable route of success. As it turns out, he's scored fairly consistently, but I still maintain over longer periods it's not sustainable.

People can like or dislike stats in football, especially xG, but it is noticeable that after a period of not giving up very many good chances to teams about 13 games into the season, the quality and quantity of shots against us has slowly risen fairly consistently, to the point where we are conceding an xGA (xG Against) over 1.5 - i.e an average team would score either 1 or 2 goals against us per game. This is in contrast to earlier in the season when we generally kept teams under 1 xGA per game.

At the other end of the pitch, we've also seen our ability to consistently create good opportunities falter.  Like I said, Johnston (or anyone else) scoring 20 yard bangers is great but it shouldn't be how we score a majority of our goals.

I'm out the country so can't verify this on mobile, but I would guess our off the ball intensity is suffering as fatigue sets in over a long season.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA FC Financial report 22/23 published

« on: April 03, 2024, 06:23:09 PM »

Not sure of Heritage entity's background (a Peace era spin-off??) but it isn't the trading company and is covered by the small company rules which pretty much exempts it from anything meaningful in the public record.

Looking at the accounts on Companies House for Heritage Limited, it says that Group Limited is the parent company of Heritage Limited.

So I guess we have to wait until the accounts go up for Group Limited?

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA FC Financial report 22/23 published

« on: April 03, 2024, 05:15:00 PM »

The headline losses are at the bottom end of the range that I was anticipating. However with these matters the devil is in the detail and that won't be available until they posted on the Companies House website. Obviously the O'Shea fee landing in this set of accounts takes a lot of the sting out of the headline losses but that just makes this years figures a lot worse.

In terms of FFP our total losses can be up to £13m per season if there is owner funding. In the absence of owner funding that number is reduced to £5m. As our then owner didn't cover the loss the allowance is £5m for that season. However there significant costs that can be discounted for FFP purposes.

What I don't understand is that the link I posted, for West Bromwich Albion Heritage Limited has accounts declared, but they don't say much, other than they've not included profit and loss balance sheets due to "small companies" rules that they've followed.

But I've never heard of WBA Heritage Limited - I thought it was either Group or Holdings that we cared about?

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA FC Financial report 22/23 published

« on: April 03, 2024, 12:51:08 PM »

Allardyce definitely does not come into this. He had long gone. I think the same applies to Ismael too.

Indeed - this is the Bruce/Corberan season it refers to, right?

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA FC Financial report 22/23 published

« on: April 03, 2024, 09:58:11 AM »

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00034292/filing-history

Basically seems like we've withheld our updated balance sheet?

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA NEW OWNERS - Bilkul football

« on: March 30, 2024, 12:03:09 PM »

That sounds bizarre... but exciting!

A short, but good explanation can be found here:

https://youtube.com/shorts/P4I6GN9Zhzw?si=7H3qUiVRe4_SAQ6s

I know, i'm just messing about Mark.

Fortune favours the bold!

Ah, never can quite tell via text 

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA NEW OWNERS - Bilkul football

« on: March 30, 2024, 10:57:18 AM »

Playing with an extra man is clearly the key to success in football.

It's a left to right interpretation of the formation, and includes the goalie. It's basically a 4-3-3 but Motta does snazzy things like pushing both CBs into the midfield and having the full backs moving inwards to be "fully back", as they were in the W-M formation of yesteryear.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA NEW OWNERS - Bilkul football

« on: March 30, 2024, 10:50:25 AM »

Pre season in Florida?

Or a friendly Vs Bologna...they might be in the Champions league with Thiago Motta's patented 2-7-2 formation.