26

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Conor Townsend

« on: February 03, 2020, 12:55:28 PM »

He's had a couple of decent games but he clearly has deficiencies in his game and probably shouldn't be a regular in a side at this level chasing promotion. As backup he's probably alright for now.

27

General Football & Sports / Re: Sam Johnstone

« on: February 03, 2020, 12:52:47 PM »

Decision making often poor for me, he'll start coming for a ball and then bottle it running back leaving the defenders having to second guess him. Part of that comes down to communication or his apparent lack of it, you never hear him saying anything until there's a break in play and he's trying to blame others for an issue he's helped cause. His foot work is appalling he just can't seem to move them quickly enough which is truly remarkable for a goalkeeper at this high a level.

I see people try to back him to the hilt by saying he's a good shot stopper, I disagree with that to a point anyway but regardless that is the bare minimum required to be a goalkeeper surely? He needs to have more about him than that, at the moment he clearly makes the lads in front of him panic and they appear to have little confidence in him.

28

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: FA Cup 3rd round draw

« on: December 01, 2019, 10:55:34 AM »

I always say the same, somewhere away I've never been.

29

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Kyle Bartley

« on: October 06, 2019, 10:45:22 AM »

He's been much better this season, has one or two clangers in him but most defenders do at this level. The main positive of his upturn in form this term is that we haven't had to rush Hegazi back, in the long term you would hope Hegazi would get back in the side over him but there's been no panic to throw him back in.

30

General Football & Sports / Re: Matheus Pereira (on loan from Sporting Lisbon)

« on: October 06, 2019, 10:43:23 AM »

I don't like making a judgement too early on a player but it looks like we have a real talent on our hands with this lad. Delighted we managed to get the future fee agreed prior to the loan deal getting done because if he continues to improve then he will be worth so much more in the future. I truly enjoy watching this fella play and unusually for a Brazilian attacking player he seems to work very hard to try and get the ball back if he loses it and tries to cover for others.

31

General Football & Sports / Re: Jake Livermore

« on: October 06, 2019, 10:38:49 AM »

I've been critical of him in his time here and I still feel it was deservedly so. I like to think I am fair though and have praised him this season, seems to be less top heavy giving him a little more mobility and he now has some legs around him that helps him out too and it least he's starting to look forward with his passing instead of the backwards and sideways stuff we have been so used to.

32

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Grady Diangana (on loan from West Ham)

« on: October 06, 2019, 10:35:50 AM »

The only positive to having this international break is the time it gives Grady to recover, I'm assuming its nothing too serious given he went to sit on the bench rather than going straight down the tunnel. He looks to be one of those that will only get better the more experience he gets in the first team.

33

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Charlie Austin

« on: October 06, 2019, 10:33:15 AM »

You could see how desperate he was to break his duck but he's been working extremely hard and that was undoubtedly his best performance for us yesterday. He truly deserved that goal yesterday and it was refreshing to hear the support he was getting from the stands and quite frankly the relief from himself and supporters when he finally got the goal. If anything the international break has come at a poor time for Charlie now but hopefully he can keep his confidence up and carry on where he left off when we go to Middlesbrough.

34

General Football & Sports / Re: Slaven Bilic

« on: October 06, 2019, 10:29:42 AM »

I remember a lot of talk from his West Ham days about a lack of discipline within the squad there but there's been absolutely no sign of that here. I could truly listen to him talk about football all day too, seems to be a proper manager with most of his changes often having the required influence on games. So far so good.

35

General Football & Sports / Re: Nathan Ferguson

« on: October 06, 2019, 10:27:14 AM »

It is remarkable that he was converted from a centre half to right back but now managing to keep out a player as good as Gibbs at left back purely on merit. You can't help but love the bloke how he's always got that massive smile on his face. It is obviously early days but as long as he carries on the way he is he'll have a very good future in the game.

36

General Football & Sports / Re: Michael Appleton

« on: September 20, 2019, 07:54:48 PM »

I do wish him all the best but had hoped to get at least a year out of him with our U23 squad.

37

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Squad/ Best XI

« on: August 11, 2019, 09:50:06 AM »

To be honest I would expect a core of 7 or 8 to be regulars and the rest of the spots being rotated on a pretty regular basis. I agree entirely with KYA though some of the lads will take a while to settle and improve fitness so we won't know for a while yet regardless.

38

Albion Matchday Forum / Re: Pre Match Chat

« on: August 11, 2019, 09:40:15 AM »

Good opportunity to see some if not all of the new lads. Would personally be tempted to change the entire starting XI to be honest.

39

General Football & Sports / Re: Sam Johnstone

« on: August 11, 2019, 09:00:10 AM »

To be honest I haven't seen a replay of their goal yet and I'm down the opposite end of the ground but the ball seemed to be in the air for a while and not too far out so I was screaming for him to go and claim it. He's never been a commanding keeper though so I don't expect to develop into one now, its a shame we are comparing him to Foster really who was decent in that respect.

Bond should get the chance on Tuesday night and if he does well he'll be breathing down his neck.

40

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Oliver Burke

« on: August 11, 2019, 08:57:38 AM »

Impossible to judge him when he only gets the odd 15 minutes here and there. I don't actually know what he is but I don't think he's a striker that's for sure, when he was on with Kanu they both kept trying to run into the same space when we had the ball out wide.

41

Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: August 11, 2019, 08:50:22 AM »

I agree with most of the previous posts but it seems to me some fans have it in for certain players & let it colour their judgement. I am certainly no fan of Livermore or HRK but today I thought Jake had a decent game & HRK was a definite improvement on Zohore, who apart from missing an open goal was anonymous  (again!)

It was far from an open goal when the goalkeeper is there as well as a defender on the line, should score there is no doubt about it but I think people are being a little harsh on Zohore. Lots of tippy tapping around outside the box but absolutely zero penetration, we need to adapt a little but we also need to give some credit to Millwall who arrived with a game plan and it worked. Early days though and I would have taken four points from our opening fixtures.

42

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Filip Krovinovic Joins Albion on loan

« on: July 06, 2019, 08:11:30 AM »

Seen barely anything of him. Watched one video for a couple of minutes which appeared to show him having a load of shots but the majority of them being saved 

Lets just hope he has a similar impact to that of Harvey Barnes rather than the impact of Jefferson Montero.

43

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Under 23's / Academy Thread

« on: July 06, 2019, 08:00:07 AM »

I don't know how the system works and what you can enforce as a contract on an academy player but there should be a better way of compensating the club who have invested in their development. In Wales, the NHS pays tuition fees for nurses who train at a Welsh university as long as they agree to practice in the country for at least three years after graduation. Accountancy firms used to pay training costs and exam fees for a similar deal. Perhaps academy players should be tied to the club that invests in them for so many seasons after they turn professional or a club wishing to poach them should have to pay a negotiated release fee?

In my opinion the system needs overhauling when it comes to compensation. The flat £235k or whatever it is isn't right. I personally think a fee for a youngster should be determined by a few factors with one of them being the contract they get at their new club. I saw a rumour yesterday that the young lad Barry has been offered £20k a week for five years by a club so IF that is true and he joined them then the compensation should reflect how highly his potential is clearly rated by that club given he's been nurtured from such a young age.

You can certainly see why some clubs have decided to downgrade their Academy.

44

General Football & Sports / Re: Salomon Rondon

« on: May 20, 2019, 10:40:33 AM »

The club will sell to whoever offers the release clause, they don't give a pooh where he goes as long as he's off our books.

45

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Dwight Gayle (on loan swap from Newcastle)

« on: May 20, 2019, 10:31:24 AM »

Lets be honest anyone that truly believed we could afford to sign him on a permanent deal were nothing short of deluded. Once we missed out on promotion this summer was going to be all about cutting costs as much as possible and one of the reasons they blackmailed fans into renewing their tickets earlier as they knew what was coming.

Gayle has had a good season so we would have had real competition to get him back anyway.

46

Albion Matchday Forum / Re: Pre Match Chat

« on: January 20, 2019, 06:52:15 PM »

Pressure is on so it'll be interesting to see how we get on especially if any of those protests their fans have planned come to fruition. I must admit I do feel for Bolton and what they are going through as a set of supporters but we have to be absolutely ruthless tomorrow and do our all to put them to the sword early on but we never make things easy for ourselves.

47

Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: January 20, 2019, 06:50:20 PM »

Turned out to be a massive missed opportunity having seen the results this weekend. The actual performance was decent enough until players started to tire and then it was a case of the manager either sticking with them in the hope experience would see us through or making a couple of changes to get fresh legs on. Ultimately made the wrong choice in my opinion and I for one was furious for a couple of days after the game. He clearly doesn't trust the lads off the bench and we all know he has his usual go to guys off the bench when everyone is available so you can usually predict who will be coming on and when most weeks.

48

General Football & Sports / Re: Harvey Barnes (recalled to Leicester)

« on: January 20, 2019, 06:36:06 PM »

I still don't think he's anywhere near ready for that level and I genuinely have some doubt over whether he ever will be. It is a massive step up and we have seen a few kids rip up the Championship and then struggle when they make that step up and I think Harvey is still at that point right now and would have been better served finishing the season here.

If we haven't managed to replace him by the end of the window I would be tempted to ask them if they'll allow him out again.

49

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Who really wants promotion?

« on: January 20, 2019, 06:29:57 PM »

To try and safeguard the future of the club as much as possible we all know the money that comes with promotion is absolutely crucial. I genuinely fear for us going forward regardless, if we don't go up then we have to cut costs even further and have an ageing squad that already needs refreshing. However if we do go up we simply can't compete financially so we go back to being a struggling club barely winning a game again.

50

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Oliver Burke (on loan at Celtic)

« on: January 20, 2019, 06:11:24 PM »

I read a report somewhere saying Leipzig let him go as he lacked tactical awareness.

To be fair he doesn't strike me as someone who naturally understands the game. It's something that could possibly develop in him as he matures as he clearly has some natural yet very raw ability, its easy to forget he's still pretty young too as it feels like he's been around for a long time.

A loan move was much needed as he simply needs minutes on the pitch and as long as he gets game time at Celtic it should improve him as he's stagnated since that move to Germany.