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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: FA Cup 24/25 Round 3 - AFC Bournemouth Away

« on: December 02, 2024, 07:40:48 PM »

Its a bit of a naff draw all round. Hardly any ties that look exciting on paper, other than the Utd vs Arsenal draw that will have BBC or ITV happy.

The idea of travelling 3-4 hours down south to see a side of Albion kids and reserves beaten by a Bournemouth second string isnt very appetising.

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

« on: December 01, 2024, 12:33:31 PM »

The biggest problem with this team is the central midfield. We knew it would be in the summer though. To use and old Tony Mowbrayism, we have too many soldiors and not enough artists.

The lack of ball playing midfielders mean that when we are in front, we are unable to control the midfield (and therefore the game) and when we are level, we dont have enough ways to break a team down. All of the burden is on the wide players.

It was obvious for all to see that we lacked a creative central player this summer but the club did nothing to remedy it. Corberan also seems happy to operate with wide players in the number 10 spot (Diangana, Johnston, Wallace), suggesting he doesnt put much weight in having a "foot on the ball" type player and instead being happy with what becomes a hybrid of 442 on the counter.

Corberan is the perfect manager to keep a side like us in the top flight, but without a good creative central midfielder, it feels unlikely that we will ever get there.

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

« on: November 27, 2024, 07:45:40 AM »

Undefeated in 9 games, but only 1 win in 11 games - its near enough a quarter of a season there.

Last night is a bad example as a draw in the circumstances is a good result, but when you look at some of the draws, Milwall, Blackburn, Cardiff, Oxford, Luton, you do wonder what the points total would be if you had gambled slightly more. Even losing 3 and winning 2 of those would have given us 1 more point than we have achieved.

The ultra structured approach needs tweaking now. Dial down the control a bit, need to be a bit more adventurous. Were slipping away from the top 6 with these draws.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Anything England Football

« on: November 19, 2024, 11:06:45 PM »

FIFA world cup qualfication pots confirmed and the good news is that England have been seeded as a Pot A team thanks to world ranking.

Some very good pot 2 teams to avoid - Norway, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Turkey, Czech Rep, even the lesser lights like Greece and Sweden look tricky. Still expect we will get top spot though now weve avoided facing a top nation, as was speculated at one stage had it been all based on the nations league.

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

« on: November 07, 2024, 10:09:40 PM »

Feels like over engineered football, a symptom of the modern micro management style of setting up a team where every move on the pitch seems to have been pre ordained by the manager.

We aren’t conceding many goals, more often than not we get a clean sheet, but we just don’t create anything. Every game I’ve watched this season has been a chore, not because we are really defensive or play long ball, but there is no spontaneity or central creativity.

I was really surprised in the summer that there was so little appetite both on this forum and at the club to sign a creative midfielder (not a winger, I mean somebody who can operate in the same areas as Koumas, Pereira, Morrison, Dorrans, even Gera). We are left with one option it seems - a very ordinary John Swift.

If Corberan is going to be anything other than a top flight relegation fire fighter type, then he needs to learn to embrace more creative, free thinking players into his structured system.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: November 07, 2024, 09:59:08 PM »

Rare you see only 3 minutes stoppage time at a game nowadays. Telling that the ref didn’t feel enough had happened to warrant more time.

9 clean sheets in the last 13 games is great but 2 goals in 7 games is a recipe for a mid table finish.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 01, 2024, 09:26:33 PM »

Feel Racic should have reacted to Wallace good ball then

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: November 01, 2024, 09:09:07 PM »

I was worried that with all of the defensive injuries, Corberan would set up like this. He can point to the lack of Luton chances and the fact we are 1-0 up to justify it, but it's so boring to watch.

Brilliant from Maja and Grant. They see us 1-0, Maja in particular is such a good player.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: October 23, 2024, 09:43:02 PM »

Amazingly we go 4th with that result. Doesn’t feel like it after 5 games without a win. Worrying that Corberan doesn’t feel he can turn to the summer signings still a quarter of the way into the season. Our summer transfer business does look worse and worse with each passing game.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: October 23, 2024, 08:16:32 PM »

Said in the summer I felt we were missing an upgrade in attacking midfield. Our over reliance on the Fellows-Maja link up has been exposed in recent weeks and I’m still certain that it’s our biggest issue.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: October 23, 2024, 08:14:32 PM »

What was Furlong doing there? It wasn’t a bad effort for a right back.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: October 23, 2024, 08:00:05 PM »

Molumby having a go at Fellows for getting in his way (or realistically, going within 5 yards of him) had a bit of the Kyle Bartley about it.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Anything England Football

« on: October 17, 2024, 08:46:34 AM »

Feel sorry for Lee Carsley, got hammered by the press before even getting the job due to him being a dual national. He had a very small sample size to prove himself and failed the limited audition. As it happens, I think with time, it may well have worked. I think his views on international football and how to set a side up for summer tournaments hold a lot of water. Players like Angel Gomes probably wont get another look in despite what they can offer. Argentina and Spain both won the last 2 majors with a similar back ground to Carsley.

Onto Tuchel, I understand the views of those who want an English qualifird coach, its a reasonable view, but i'm a pragmatist and as SmethDan has illustrated, there are no English coaches at the top level and the environment doesnt lend itself to support them. Tuchel has a track record of winning things. It might not work out - lots of evidence of that in his recent spells - but if he can get one good tournament out of us then i wont celebrate less just because he is not English.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Anything England Football

« on: October 17, 2024, 08:28:07 AM »

Not only is it a good appointment but he has an English number 2 , who is his usual assistant !

Barry was linked with the Ireland job not that long ago, Barry's are almost always Irish descent.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Anything England Football

« on: October 10, 2024, 09:43:38 PM »

Cant say they dont deserve that. Put the ball in the net more ofren than Hungary did.

England need to win the last 3 and win them big to get top now. I'd say it's 50/50 we fail to get promotion and the repercussions of that failure would be atleast 2 euro/world cup qualifcation stages sharing a group with a France, Soain, Germany etc as a minimum.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Anything England Football

« on: October 10, 2024, 09:36:33 PM »

Bellingham as usual with the clutch moment.

You can still get a chance of promotion via a play off if we come second, but that play off will be vs a Belgoum, Switzerland, Hungary etc - ie a decent chance we lose and fail to get promotion.

That goal was crucial to give us the best chance of avoiding a couple of very tricky major tournament qualifaction draws (as the nations league directly impacts your draw seeding).

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General Football & Sports / Re: Lassana Diarra Judgement

« on: October 04, 2024, 10:15:36 PM »

I never know how to take these rulings - it isnt helped by the fact that they are often written using legal phrasing and jargon, is compounded by them being the decision of one court covering one jurisdiction and then explained by sports journalists who have a decent but incomplete understanding of what the outcomes mean in practice.

I still dont really understand what the several different super league court rulings actually decided.

It does sound like this opens the door for the end of the transfer system as we know it, but equally the Diarra case was fairly unique and unusual so would a more conventional transfer result in the same ruling?

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: After Match Debate

« on: October 01, 2024, 10:09:33 PM »

After a good start to the season, 2 losses on the bounce bring us back down to earth. A slight concern that the down turn in results have coincided with us bringing more of the new signings into the team.

Grant looked good tonight, Maja worked hard but it wasnt his night, Johnston and Fellows added more life when they came on, maybe Styles did too, but important we bounce back at the weekend and more players than just Maja/Fellows/Mowatt contribute.

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Albion Matchday Forum / Re: In Game Chat

« on: October 01, 2024, 09:24:29 PM »

Swift and Grant playing like breeze blocks tonight.

I've felt Grant's been pretty good. Full of industry, let down a bit by team mates not capatalising on his work.

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General Football & Sports / Re: The big sports thread

« on: September 23, 2024, 12:26:37 PM »

Good weekend of sport, always helps if Albion win.

Bad England cricket loss to the Aussies, but the netball side went down under to get a surprise win in Sydney.

Argentina beat South Africa in the Rugby Championship, putting them second in the Championship and meaning they have beat all 3 of the big southern hemisphere sides this year.

Englishman Lando Norris won the Singapore Grand Prix to edge closer to a still unlikely Formula 1 title.

My own highlight was the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, Surrey. It doesn’t quite get the same depth of field as the pre major, Scottish Open, or the the same prize money and kudos as the Dubai event that ends the season, but the BMW is still the flagship event for the European tour. The field included 6 golfers with PGA tour wins this season (McIlroy, Horschel, Rai, Pavon, Malnati and Macintyre), an additional 6 Ryder cup 2023 Europeans (Straka, Fitzpatrick, Rose, Hojgaard, Lowry, Fleetwood) and 3 of next weeks Presidents cup golfers (An, Kim and Scott), plus a raft of Europeans playing on the PGA tour. The Black Country’s own Aaron Rai very nearly won it before fading at the end, while former youth prodigy Matteo Mannasero nearly capped a whirlwind 2 years by taking the crown for a second time. Instead, it went to a 3 man playoff, with the West Ham supporting Billy Horschel beating Rory McIlroy and South African Thriston Lawrence.

The one negative I suppose is that the top 4 positions contained 3 golfers who primarily play the PGA tour. This was Horschel’s 2nd win at Wentworth in 4 years, he has only won 2 PGA tour events in that time despite playing there week in, week out. It exposes the gap between the two tours now that LIV and the PGA tour are taking the cream on an annual basis.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Boxing Thread

« on: September 23, 2024, 12:00:47 PM »

I’d argue Joshua was a top level heavy weight - both based on what has been around for the last 10 years and even going further back, given they are super heavyweights nowadays. If he wasn’t, then it begs the question of who was for the last 10 years? Klitschko, Parker, Povetkin and Pulev were the best the division have had to offer for the last decade and he beat all 4. He wasn’t as good as Fury and clearly not as good as Uysk, while I’ve always felt Wilder in his pomp would have found the winning punch, but after that he deserved recognition as being in that top rung of heavyweights.

He hasn’t been the same since the Klitschko fight, his efforts to become a smarter, all round boxer seemed to take away his offensive skills and he started to look more ordinary.

I don’t see a way back for him now. If Dubois can do that to him, there are 10 other heavyweights who could probably do the same now. He will take on the rematch I would imagine for one last pay day but I can’t think of a boxer coming back from an annihilation like that to win a second fight or even come back any stronger.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Dingle watch - Anything Wolves

« on: September 22, 2024, 09:06:41 AM »

It's because Wolves fans genuinely bought into the idea they were on a journey to Champions League football, when their reality was the same as it was for the other 13-14 prem clubs - its about survival and existing for the majority of the time.

They still have a great squad full of internationals, a good manager should keep them up.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: September 19, 2024, 09:11:44 PM »

I think if you put yourself in a Championship managers shoes, managing a WBA type club, it doesnt really matter how much you are enjoying your time at said club, the lure of an Everton, a West Ham or even sadly a Wolves is difficult to turn down.

Even if Corberan gets us up, he will have a huge uphill battle to keep us there with our financial reality. A club like Everton or West Ham are established at the level, they have the big stadium, big fan base, greater resources and more potential to achieve a top 10 finish than an Albion.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: September 19, 2024, 08:09:14 PM »

Mowbray was effectively poached

Yep, paid £2m compensation for him. In the same boat as Hodgson, Ardilles, Atkinson etc

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General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL CHAMPIONSHIP THREAD

« on: September 18, 2024, 07:42:00 AM »

Pelach was one of Corberan's assistants at Huddersfield. Supposed to be a well liked and respected figure in the championship, he was Huddersfield caretaker manager twice. Not the Top 20 wwre a hit unsure, they felt it was Stoke trying to find a Corberan type of their own, but did point out that Huddersfield didnt hire him either time they had him as caretaker manager. I also noticed that Corberan didnt take him with him after he left Huddersfield, despite him still being happy to be an assistant manager.