1

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

2

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?

3

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

4

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)

5

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.

6

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

7

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

8

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.

9

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

10

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.

11

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.

12

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.

13

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.

14

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.

15

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?

16

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?

17

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?

18

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?

19

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 

20

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.

21

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.

22

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.

23

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

24

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Mikey Johnston joins on loan (Official!)

« on: March 15, 2024, 03:26:09 AM »

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

25

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