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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: Yesterday at 05:34:40 PM »

I have had reservations about CC for some time and not convinced to be honest. My biggest gripe is he won't utilise younnger players other than Fellows who even he gets dropped frequently. Then there is this lethargic build-up play approach that opposition teams can generally counter easily.

Today, he started with six players aged 30+, the youngest player being MJ at 25. He generally uses a squad of 25 players whose average age is just over 28. 10 of these players are over 30. I doubt any other team in the Championship have squads as old as ours.

It's becoming a real issue. Said it in M'Vila's thread, but we're pretty unique at this level as a club in constantly needing to sign all these old players to fill in minor squad roles rather than just trusting some academy players to do some minor roles.

It's not like the academy players need to even be good enough for this level, they just need to be able to take on some minutes. Would we really be worse off if say Caleb Taylor who's at minimum a very good league one centre back had taken the minutes we gave to Pieters this season for example?

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Yann M'Vila signs short term deal

« on: Yesterday at 05:22:43 PM »

We signed him as we needed someone desperately to fill the squad with the injuries we had.

Why he played today I don't know.  M'Vila, Chalobah, Reach - none of them should be near the squad if we're serious about the play offs.

He's one of those kind of signings where its difficult to believe we don't have some academy player capable of filling in the minimal minutes required of him. It's the kind of signing we've made repeatedly since relegation and they've all been complete wastes of money.

I'm not saying we have some great academy player waiting to fill in, but M'Vila isn't good enough for this level either, and it shouldn't be a suprise that he's not because he's a 33, nearly 34 year old who hadn't played for a year. Can someone like Whitwell really be THAT much worse? Other teams seem to manage ok with their academies playing these bit part roles without destroying the team, we seem pretty unique in consistently needing to sign the likes of M'Vila to play a few minutes here or there.

This is the list of free transers we've made out of window or deadline day since relegation in 2018: M'Vila, Kelly, Rogic, Pieters, Chalobah, Bryan, Peltier, Mears, Hoolahan, Sako.

How much money did we waste there? Hard to believe that Caleb Taylor, who at minimum is proven as a very good league one centre back, would have been worse than Kelly, or certainly Pieters this season.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Yann M'Vila signs short term deal

« on: Yesterday at 04:49:09 PM »

He looks exactly what is, a player at the end of their career who hadn't played for a long, long time.

No idea why we signed him given his situation, though concerning he's apparently the kind of signing Corberan approved of, even after training with the squad. It's oft said, but has he really offered anything someone from the academy like Whitwell wouldn't in the minutes he's played? It's just wasting money we don't have on old players who contribute nothing. We do this time and time again.

I'm not saying we need to have a squad full of academy players, or that they're even good enough either, but at the same time its hard to see how we'd be worse off if some of the academy players had taken the roles the likes of M'Vila, Kelly, Chalobah, and Reach have played since they've been here. Certainly we'd be somewhat better off financially. Equally, its very hard to believe if an academy player put in performances like the aforementioned players they'd ever be seen again.

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

« on: Yesterday at 04:36:01 PM »

We can only hope that this groups embarrassing end to the season puts pay to the idea pretty much any of them, outside Kipre, deserve a contract extension. It's been the same bottling, year after year. Manager after manager for so many of them. Absolutely zero mentality. All the experience in the world and it counts for sweet FA time and time again.

My main worry is Corberan is clearly a very cautious manager and likes his experienced pro's so we'll end up keeping a bunch of of our soon to be out of contract players when we're desperate to move them on.

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

« on: Yesterday at 04:26:16 PM »

COME ON IPSWICH

Not sure what will be more embarassing, losing the Play offs entirely or the absolute hammering we'll take against Leeds front line if Hull fail to make up the points.

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

« on: Yesterday at 04:25:25 PM »

We need to score 3 to win a game. Passing woeful, appalling in both boxes and tactically unsure. Also, do we EVER win a big game? Every time it gets to crunch time, we wilt.

Rubbish.

We have zero mentality. Have we even scored a extra time winner this season? Which shouldn't be difficult given the amount of extra time in games this season. We just consistently wilt. Was the exact same last season. When it came down to the do or die games against Sunderland we just didn't have the mentality. The experience out there counts for nothing.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: Yesterday at 04:22:59 PM »

Also needs to start trusting younger players far, far more.

Lets face it we will be in this division next season and have a massive rebuilding job. Signing M'Vila's and Albrighton's doesn't work for us. 6 of our outfield 10 is 30+ and it shows. It was the exact same last season when a young Sunderland side had the energy to outcompete us and we looked the old squad what they are as they beat us out to the play offs. We're doing the same yet again.

It's like groundhog day. If an academy player put in the kind of performances some of our experienced lot do we'd never play them again.

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

« on: Yesterday at 04:19:39 PM »

Must say i'm a bit concerned about Corberan's eye for a player if after extensive trailing he thought M'Vila was a worthwile signing. He looks exactly what he is, a well past it player who hadn't played in a long time. He brings absolutely nothing to the team - if a academy player put in these kind of performances they'd never be seen again. Baffling after extensive trialling we gave him a contract.

Considering the rebuilding job we have next season and we all know the club scouting isn't going to turn up much its a great concern.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: Yesterday at 04:14:42 PM »

Done an overall good job but questions have to be asked about how badly we've fallen off two seasons in a row. We completely bottled last season, although we did have some injury issues.

This season no excuses, 1 win in 7 games for what should have been a very comfortable end to the season. Even that win was a very uninspired home win against perhaps the worst ever championship side.

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

« on: Yesterday at 04:12:20 PM »

Absolute shambles, only hope of the play offs is Ipswich beating Hull tonight. No way this lot are picking up a win.

Even if we make it there's no way we beat Leeds, most likely we'd be on the end of a humiliating defeat given their attack.

Really not good enough to bottle it so badly two seasons in a row. Injuries aren't an excuse this season, we've really messed it up. Bizarre team selection and too many favourites crammed into the side. Why is Fellows AWOL all of a sudden just because Phillips is back?

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

« on: Yesterday at 03:59:27 PM »

Not nearly good enough really, best case scenario we limp into the play offs thanks to Hull and Coventry falling off.

Need a massive second half, even a point probably wouldn't be a disaster but another loss really shows we've lost it. We would only be embarassed in the play offs if we have this lack of bottle to even close out a position.

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

« on: Yesterday at 03:29:18 PM »

It'd be one of the all time great bottle jobs if we somehow manage to throw away a play off position. Seems our best bet is other teams failing to get the points, because I really can't see us getting the points in the remaining games. Shambolic end to the season which doesn't bode well for the play offs.

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Last Match Forum - 13/04 Sunderland (H) / Re: In Game Chat

« on: April 13, 2024, 03:53:25 PM »

Absolutely ridiculous stuff, Sunderland were absolutely zero threat now we've thrown away the game and put a lot more pressure on ourselves due to a completely ridiuclous 2 bookings.

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Last Match Forum - 13/04 Sunderland (H) / Re: In Game Chat

« on: April 13, 2024, 03:49:45 PM »

Draw would be a great result now, braindead couple of challenges.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Brandon Thomas-Asante

« on: April 13, 2024, 08:07:59 AM »

His finishing isn't great but its not like there's many centre forwards outscoring him in the league. And those that have have mostly cost big fees. For 300k he's been tremendous value, even if he's had to overplay in both seasons he's had here due to injuries. 

I suspect we will get interest from him from fellow championship clubs again this summer.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Play off Points Target

« on: April 10, 2024, 08:29:48 AM »

76 points will basically almost certainly be enough given how the games shake out, Norwich would have to get over 2 points per game for their remaining fixtures (so meaning they need to win 3 of their remaining 4) and one of the other 3 teams who can get over 76 points that would have to win every single game. Not technically impossible but incredibly unlikely.

I'd say its more likely it will be less than 76 points needed, but 76 points would be the "safe" total.

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

« on: April 04, 2024, 01:54:40 PM »

We already know for a fact that the club was trying to sell Pereira using dodgy means where some of the fee would be kept hidden, it wouldn't be a surprise if the club actually managed it, particularly given all the dodgy goings on that the owners were involved in with our finances.

Just on the face of it there's no way even the dumbest negotiators thought a guy with Pereira's record with us was only worth 17m. Based on Benrahma and Buendia he was worth far more than that on his championship record alone, let alone before getting 17 goals and assists in the premier.

Plus he went to Ah Hilal, who overpay for just about everyone. I mean look at the contracts they hand out, are they really going to quibble over a few million with us? Somehow they of all clubs get the best of us?

To my memory he demanded to leave and nobody else came in for him offering those types of wages. West Ham were interested, but the wages were like £45kpw under UK tax law or £100kpw tax free. MP said he'd only go to Saudi Arabia. So that was that. We were forced.

This has never made any sense, Al Hilal overpay for almost everyone. Why is Pereira the only exception? Why is it rich clubs need to pay such big transfer fees? On this logic teams would just say to players, we'll give you a few million on the signing bonus if you refuse to play.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Play off Points Target

« on: April 03, 2024, 09:46:49 AM »

no games are easy in this league, it's what makes the championship one of the most exciting leagues in the world in terms of results.

for us i thnk it's more about who we will face in the playoffs (trying not to get ahead of ourselves however).
Southampton for us are the team to avoid as we have 2 losses against them and the style of play seems to be one we can't deal with.

I don't think you can draw too many conclusions from the games in the season. We also took 4 points off both Leeds and Ipswich who've been better teams than Southampton this season. Southampton's defensive issues from the start of the season have come back ever since we played them.

Of course, we still have work to do ourselves to make the play offs and shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves.

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

« on: April 02, 2024, 09:57:32 AM »

Mo Faal scored a last minute winner for Walsall yesterday bringing him up to 10 for the season. 10 non-penalty goals for a young centre forward in their first season in professional football is good going, hopefully we can get him on a longer contract with his due to expire at the end of the season. Clearly there's something there.

For context he's one of 7 players 21 or under to have scored at least 10 league goals so far this season in the entire league pyramid, so there's not tonnes of players out their doing it.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Anything England Football

« on: March 25, 2024, 09:42:02 PM »

This is by no means the best england side in my life time but it is relative to the other nations. Think back to that 2002 and 2006 world cup the golden generation we were still comfortably miles worse than the Italians, French, Germans, Brazilians and Argentines possibly even the Dutch.

Now by relative terms arguably besides the French we are the best side on paper. [I know we don't play on paper] a lot of the big hitters the Germans and the Italians don't have the persdonel they have had over past years and even the south American giants aren't all that. Don't think a good side has won the world cup since Spain 2010 the last few it's all been very marginal

Edit: to the point we are not the best ever but we are relatively and Southgate is blowing our chances at using our slight advantage. Next world cup has even more sides and more knock out so becomes even harder to win. He should have gone after he fluffed it v Croatia in world cup and if anybody had any doubts he should have gone after surrendering a 1-0 lead to Italy that was awful

This kind of proves my point about ignorance of the wider footballing world. That Croatia team had Brozovic - Modric - Rakitic in midfield, not one of England's midfielders in the squad was even close to their quality on the ball. You have that level of disparity in midfield you're going to be in trouble. But somehow, because its Croatia, and we're England, it was a crime we didn't beat the better team on paper.

The Italy game is a bit similar. It's not that we couldn't have won, or couldn't have done better but we lost on penalties to a team on a world record undefeated run with a midfield that was far superior to ours. You have the far superior midfield, you probably control the game. That's just the reality of football.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Anything England Football

« on: March 25, 2024, 09:14:12 PM »

The discourse about England is so heightened and usually pretty ignorant of the rest of the world. The England side is good, no doubt about it, top 10 in the world. But the spine is pretty weak, and teams with weak spines are never going to be favourites for tournaments. Whichever way you cut it, England don't have a top centre back to pair with Stones, and neither do England have even a good midfielder to go with Rice in midfield.

It's a flawed team that people have overrated due to a good few years between 2010-2018 when the squad was largely straight up bad. Because its no longer that, people jumped from "worst squad ever" in 2018 to thinking we were the best squad on the planet a couple of years later. Doesn't stack up. At the moment France have clearly the best squad in Europe, England's squad isn't really better than Portugal or Germany's. Then Italy, Netherlands, Belgium are all a bit behind but none a gaping chasm to us.

Southgate did a good job in 2018 and 2021. Average in 2022. Remains to be seen for the Euro's. Overall he'll go down as a good England manager with flawed in game management, albeit people overrating the sides he had. The 2018 side got revised from "worst England squad ever" at the start of the tournament to people blaming him for losing the world cup semi final in extra time, which I guess shows the ridiculousness of it all.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Tom Fellows

« on: March 22, 2024, 07:48:40 PM »

Fellows assisted England under 20s first 2 goals in a 5-1 win over Poland. Assisted our ex academy player Iroegbunam for the first.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Brandon Thomas-Asante

« on: March 13, 2024, 10:21:12 AM »

BTA is there or thereabouts an average championship striker (with the potential to get better), which makes him by far our best striker. He was in a bit of lull before his injury, as much I think due to over reliance on him this season thanks to injuries elsewhere. I find it hard to see how anyone could possibly have watched Wallace struggling up front in recent weeks and genuinely thought BTA wouldn't be an improvement.

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

« on: March 12, 2024, 06:16:44 PM »

Difficult to tell at this point whether Villa even care about the signings or if its a "lovers scorned" situation from Hopcroft and Harrison. Their level of recruitment from our academy is unprecedented.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: March 01, 2024, 10:41:14 PM »

Pipa clearly isn't rated, he's played 210 minutes for us all season despite being fit. He was a last minute cheap loan signing to add another body to the squad, most likely because we were out of options and had to rely on Corberan's contact book.