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Messages - MarkW

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1
General Football & Sports / Re: Anything England Football
« on: March 26, 2024, 03:57:50 AM »
I agree with Dan up to a point. We barely qualified for 2018, with a late goal in Sam Allardyce's sole game in charge getting us there. Southgate came in as a caretaker and was then given the permanent job. He healed and unified the team, and our performance in 2018 galvanised the country. Let's not forget it wasn't long ago the England camp would have a Manchester United table at dinner, a Liverpool table, Chelsea etc. For all the talent the supposed "Golden Generation" had, there were always off-field distractions, e.g. Terry & Ferdinand's feud over Terry's alleged racism to Rio's brother.

What Southgate has done off the field deserves an enormous amount of credit. And the way he has evolved the team over his tenure also shows good development - in 2018 we tried to be solid, and generally relied on set pieces, which was sensible given little preparation time and the realities of tournament play. We then developed the possession-heavy style that I and others have termed "suffer-ball". It's exasperating to watch but again, did well over the Euros tournament. And from what I've seen Vs Brazil we trying to press more and play more expansively, though I'm not sure we did it very well.

All that said, I still am left with the feeling that we could have done better. I take Dan's point about the midfield of Croatia - you can add Lovren, Vrsaljko, Rebic, Mandzukic and Perisic as all solid players would would be in contention for England if they were English. But you can look at the substitutions in that game and you could argue they came too late (equally our subs bench was fairly dire).

Likewise the Italy team had Donnarumma, Bonucci and Chiellini, but I'm not sure any of their other players would be "stars"...Veratti probably? Jorginho is obviously a very solid player. The fact we tried to play Catanaccio Vs them after getting an early goal speaks volumes, but if not for some missed penalties, the narrative would be that Southgate "did enough" and his final subs for the pens were clever.

Returning to the here and now, Kane & Bellingham are good enough to go into any team in the world. Beyond that we have several players who do well for their clubs but I think tournament play is very different, and what they are asked to do by England is very different. I'd put Rice, Foden, Saka and maybe Trent Alexander-Arnold in there; perhaps John Stones too. As much as Maguire has had an enormous amount of faith out in him, and based on club form unjustifiably so, the fact no other English centre back has made themselves the undeniable partner to Stones says a lot. We've had a revolving door of "nearly men", such as Dunk, Mings, Guehi etc. Some more than others could feel harshly done by, but it's a glaring area of weakness, alongside left back.

I hope this is Southgate's last tournament for us, but I hope it ends on a high. I don't like his coaching team's in-game strategy or management, but he has moulded the national team into what it is, from working at U21 level all the way to now. He deserves credit for that, and for fans actually having an expectation for England to be competitive and not just assume we'll be dumped out at the first knock out round.

2
West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Play off Points Target
« on: March 17, 2024, 09:14:10 AM »
According to Opta, we have the second easiest run in, while Hull and Coventry have the fourth and sixth hardest respectively. Hull have drawn their last four, including a creditable result Vs Leicester, but also throwing away a lead Vs Blues.

The game's not played on paper but we're in pole position for those outside the top 4

3
Was speaking to a Celtic fan to tonight in O'neills, and despite us both being at Rangers demise againt Benfica, he said MJ was absolutely ????.

I said we'll take him on a free then.

They really don't rate him.

With that kind of feedback I hope we're sensible and not give him a KG contract with a big fee attached as well.



Plenty of players have started off well only to fall into mediocrity. Gianni Zuiverloon is the one who springs to mind - MOTM performance Vs Man Utd (I think), thought we'd picked up a gem, and then he reverted to his base line.

We cannot expect Johnston to keep scoring wonder goals every game

4
West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Brandon Thomas-Asante
« on: March 13, 2024, 10:47:32 AM »
Up front has been on our weakest area season after season thanks to our poor recruitment. Thank goodness for BTA who has been the only striker, with any league experience ,available on a regular basis in the last 2 seasons .

I'm not sure we could have foreseen both Maja and Dike being out with substantial injuries.

I have a lot of criticism for our recruitment but we have 3 centre forwards in a one-up-front system. Ordinarily that would plenty

5
West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Top Championship goalscorers
« on: March 10, 2024, 10:35:50 AM »
We got promoted under Bilic with Austin and HRK getting 10 goals each as our top goalscorers, but then we had sizeable contributions from Pereira (8), Diangana (8), and Phillips (7).

If you look at some of the players on the list of goalscorers, their teams aren't doing great. Blackburn and Plymouth are in a relegation scrap, Sunderland are bang in mid-table. Even the teams at the top aren't a million miles away - Vardy (13), Chaplin (12) as examples. If BTA hadn't been injured then maybe he'd be on 11 or 12 instead of 9.

We have the 3rd best defence in the league, but the 8th best attack. But we actually have scored way more goals than we should have (based on xG). It's not finishing that is generally the issue, it's creating good goalscoring opportunities. As much as Mikey Johnston scoring wonder goals is great, it's not a sustainable way of attacking over a long period of time.


6
West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Conor Townsend
« on: March 09, 2024, 09:49:55 PM »
Stats aren't everything, but they do give indications:

https://fbref.com/en/players/4dc4f138/scout/12193/Conor-Townsend-Scouting-Report

These seem to suggest he's average to poor defensively, but is good at progressing the ball. This is vs all full backs in the Championship this year.

7
General Football & Sports / Re: The big sports thread
« on: March 09, 2024, 05:26:53 PM »
This is football-related but 777, the people trying to buy Everton, are also the owners of London Lions, the UKs premier basketball club. Both the men and women's teams are having standout years in Europe.

However, London Lions have been served a "First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off" from Companies House. My understanding is it is due to failing to submit their accounts in time. This is the first step towards liquidation/insolvency of the company. I think it basically means they have 3 months to sort themselves out? Not an expert on this by any means.

Very worrying, and the ramifications for 777's football Investments could prove to be significant

8
West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA NEW OWNERS - Bilkull football
« on: March 04, 2024, 10:17:06 PM »
We have another thread for discussing which players should be kept or not. Let's not derail this thread

9
General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL CHAMPIONSHIP THREAD
« on: February 27, 2024, 01:09:55 PM »
If we don't go up then next season seems our best bet to go up autos. Burnley and Sheff I don't think will trouble too much they seem so so so so weak in the prem, Forest and Brentford if Luton stay up don't fear them either. Everton should be safe old Dychey will probably get a couple scrappy wins needed

Next season I reckon will be very open the same way the Moore season was ie non of the relegated sides running away with it

Burnley absolutely walked the Championship last year - you could argue they've been a bit naive with the way they have gone about things this year, but I would expect another strong performance from them.

10
Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate
« on: February 21, 2024, 10:48:05 AM »
Great 2nd half but wretched opposition.

On thing about corners.  To paraphrase Einstein: Madness is trying the same thing again and again and expecting different results.  As we were without Bartley and Semi yesterday and their defence was tall it was fairly obvious that just sending the ball into the crowd wasn't working (the first goal was a scrappy exception).   Why isn't there some variation of corner routines?  Do we need a set piece coach?

I think set pieces fall under the remit of Damia Abella, but I could be wrong. I do think we need to be a big threat from them, though.

One thing I noticed around Christmas time is we would have Mowatt taking an outswinging corner, but the player coming short would be Diangana, who is also left footed. I always felt it narrowed the angles available once taken.

We currently recruiting for a First Team Performance Analyst so hopefully there's scope to add a specialist set pieces analyst/coach too

11
General Football & Sports / Re: Anything Birmingham City
« on: February 19, 2024, 11:02:37 AM »
Mobray leaving them. Any one else heard this?
Edit... It is now on BBC site, medical reasons.

Only temporary while he undergoes treatment for an unnamed illness.

Hope he recovers quickly

12
West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: System / Tactics / Personnel
« on: February 18, 2024, 11:47:12 PM »
As I said...I know we are not going to get rid of everyone I'm not an idiot I was just trying to make a point of how poor our squad is if we get promoted we must not forget that. As other posts have stated since the takeover we should now start building for the future and our current squad is not the future hence the reality check of players who I think OVER TIME we should look at replacing

Ultimately, we know this squad isn't even good enough for promotion, let alone the Premier League otherwise we wouldn't be so happy with the job Corberan is doing.

13
West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: System / Tactics / Personnel
« on: February 18, 2024, 09:33:53 PM »
The following are out of contract this summer (as per Stan's Google sheet):

Bartley
Kipré
Kelly
Pieters

Mowatt
Phillips
Reach
Chalobah

With Pipa, Johnston and Marshall all going back to their parent clubs.

Of those, I'd say Kipré and Mowatt are worth keeping if better replacements can't be found/the wage bill allows. Kipré should have better offers based on his form, and it would be his last shot at a big contract.

Beyond that, those with deals expiring in 2025 are:

Griffiths

Furlong
Ajayi
C Taylor
Townsend

Swift
Molumby
Yokuslu

Diangana
BTA

So all of the above are for sale at the right price, but equally if we got rid of all of them we'd have about 5 players left! (Wallace, Fellows, Dike, Palmer & Maja).

I don't see anyone above us looking at Molumby - I think we're his ceiling, frankly.

A decision needs to be made re: Griffiths - if he's the future you get rid of Palmer, and if he isn't you get rid with a year left on his deal. Palmer at 27 still has 6 years of his peak, and has two years until his deal expires so I don't see why we'd get rid, unless Griffith is making huge strides. You can argue if Palmer is a keeper who is good enough if we go up, but right now that's not our concern.

In defence we don't have a player contracted beyond next summer (2025), so expect deals for players you don't think deserve them. I just don't see us replacing an entire back line. Furlong, Taylor, Ajayi and Kipré seem likely candidates, plus Townsend is our only proper left back (Ashworth isn't in the picture and is also out of contract after 2025).

Midfield we have two wingers tied down. I think the boat has saled on anyone taking Grady, and he can do a job so unless he's demanding huge wages I'd go back there to keep him. Also doesn't hurt he's left footed.

Dike and to a lesser extent Maja are both injury-hit, so you don't get rid of BTA unless you're confident one or both is fit to rotate, or we hope our scouts find someone to replace them. While BTA doesn't get a shed load of goals, he clearly is important for how we play out of possession and that can't be overlooked with Corberan as boss.

14
West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan
« on: February 16, 2024, 12:41:51 PM »
This isn't about CC in particular but one thing that comes up often is out away record. We are much better at home, but it's interesting when you look at who we've played at home Vs away

We have played every team from 23rd up to 12th at home, only losing once (Huddersfield). Conversely, we have played 23rd through to 19th away from home.

On the flip side, we've played 9 of the top 12 teams away from home (we can't play ourselves so that's only 2 games to go), only beating Preston and Coventry.

Al this is to say - is our good home form because we are good at home, or because we've basically played the whole of the bottom half of the league? And is our patchy away from more down to us playing most of the top half? The three losses Vs Blues, Swansea and Blackburn really sting, though

15
West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Action For Albion/ Potential Takeover
« on: February 15, 2024, 09:49:59 PM »
https://www.wba.co.uk/news/bilkul-football-wba-reaches-agreement-west-bromwich-albion-takeover


 
Bilkul Football WBA, LLC – a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran C. Patel – has reached an agreement to acquire an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club.

The takeover has been approved by the EFL, with exchange and completion to take place next week.

Shilen Patel, who will also be named Chairman of the football club, is a serial investor with experience in technology, healthcare, sport, real estate, finance, food & beverage, and numerous other sectors across five continents. He has owned a minority shareholding in Serie A club Bologna FC 1909 since 2014.

Shilen Patel said: “I am thrilled and grateful to have reached an agreement to become the custodian of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. The club’s exceptional history, support, and potential set it apart even here in the cradle of football.

“My goal is to help the club achieve a future worthy of its history as a top-flight club that marshals the pride and passion that have defined the Albion for generations.

“I am excited to get started at The Hawthorns and look forward to the deal completing next week.”

16
West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Brandon Thomas-Asante
« on: February 14, 2024, 01:34:28 PM »
I just did a very quick analysis of how much players lose the ball Vs the amount of touches they get, and BTA is up there. All the others near in the top 20 are either forwards or wingers.

What I would say is that BTA was involved in the first goal yesterday, and Fellow's goal at the weekend. His link up play probably isn't a strength but he isn't terrible either.

The other thing is he is a key part of our press, and that is integral to the way we play. Knowing when, how and who to press is probably more important to CC.

17
General Football & Sports / Re: Blue card to be introduced
« on: February 08, 2024, 11:06:25 PM »
It'll just go the same way as the GAA, players on the team with 10 men will go down injured to eat into the 10 minutes

I was about to post about my own experiences in field hockey with sin bins, but you raise a very good point that in football (and I assume GAA), the clock never stops, unlike Rugby and Field Hockey.

I'm general I'm in favour of sin bins, and I'm glad cynical fouls are being looked at more severely.

Some of the other things being looked at, like a corner being award if a goalkeeper is penalised for time wasting, are really interested.

I sometimes feel like football is far too set in its ways, and some new innovations would shake the sport up a bit

18
Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate
« on: January 30, 2024, 01:19:33 PM »
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/7ubPs51Mvvyw9rwA/

Just to return to the Bartley challenge, I personally think a yellow is the right call here.

19
Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate
« on: January 29, 2024, 11:50:59 AM »
It was a forearm smash to the next and face. OK, Cunha made the most of it... most players do but if there was VAR, that would probably be a red.

First contact was with the chest. And as Cunha goes does the forearm slips upward into his head. Definite cause for mitigation to the TMO won't be upgrading the sin bin to a red...wait, wrong sport!

20
Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate
« on: January 28, 2024, 08:18:21 PM »
Sam Matterface really is a piece of work...on the commentary he said "I spoke to someone earlier who said they wouldn't bring their child to this fixture."

Absolute nonsense...

He's referring to an article in The Athletic:

"Guy: For me, we’re sitting next to each other now, as a Wolves fan and a West Brom fan, we can have a beer and a bit of banter.

But when people get together on matchdays it becomes a pack mentality and a few lads have too many beers and that’s where it sometimes goes too far. Would I be comfortable taking my lad to one of these games? Probably not.

Jones: I’ve got an eight-year-old and I’m not taking him"

"Guy" is Jason Guy, a Wolves podcaster. And "Jones" is Ali Jones, who is of course on this forum and a major force behind Action for Albion

21
Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat
« on: January 28, 2024, 02:02:40 PM »
Taylor is a unit, isn't he!

22
Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat
« on: January 28, 2024, 01:57:14 PM »
Taylor, Pipa and Pieters are warming up, with Bartley and Kipré not out. Bartley was holding his kid so that's very understandable

23
Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat
« on: January 28, 2024, 01:48:41 PM »
Wouldn't surprise me if they called it off and chucked both clubs out

If it's called off Wolves go through. Maybe both will be fined, games played behind closed doors etc

24
Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat
« on: January 28, 2024, 01:25:17 PM »
What's happening in the Halfords? TV won't show

25
Albion Matchday Forum / Re: Pre Match Chat
« on: January 28, 2024, 10:47:50 AM »
Griffiths starts!

Strong team otherwise

Griffiths

Furlong
Kipré
Bartley
Townsend

Yokuslu
Mowatt
Chalobah

Wallace
BTA
Swift

Palmer, Pieters and Pipa the only senior players on the bench

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