[Signor_Maresca]

There is an Albion press conference at 2pm today. I hope the journos attending will demand some answers from Irvine about his puzzling team selections and tactics.

Simple question from me would be: "You recognise yourself we lack pace, width, guile.  Why can't a Portuguese international winger and  an Argentinian international winger even make the bench?"

[Signor_Maresca]

what choice does he have to change things for tomorrows game.He selects the same team with a similar performance he knows what hes now up against

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

[Dexy]

JP will know he got away with it last season and support stuck by the club despite an awful season , now we appear to be going down the same road i can see him pulling the trigger quicker if things don't improve. JP can't possibly be happy spending that much money on fees and wages on the Summer signings and most don't feature despite some poor results and performances.

[Mister AT]

JP will know he got away with it last season and support stuck by the club despite an awful season , now we appear to be going down the same road i can see him pulling the trigger quicker if things don't improve. JP can't possibly be happy spending that much money on fees and wages on the Summer signings and most don't feature despite some poor results and performances.

Id be interesting to hear if any of the in the know people on here have heard anything from inside the club and how AI is thought of.

[WorcsWBA]

Irvine is now saying that his tactics aren't to blame for our recent failure to score:

"West Brom boss Alan Irvine says his tactics aren't to blame for the goal drought

    Dec 01, 2014 08:19
    By Bill Howell

Head coach says his West Bromwich Albion team is set up to attack - they just didn't do it well enough against Arsenal as they a drew a blank in front of goal and lost again

Alan Irvine has defended his tactics and suggested it is far easier telling his players to play ‘on the front foot’ than seeing them carry it out.

West Bromwich Albion were ponderous against Arsenal and drew another blank in front of goal.

“All our work last week was about being on the front foot and it’s really easy to do that on the training ground, talking about being positive and going forward,” said Irvine. “But it can be tough during the game. We started in that vein and we finished in that vein but there wasn’t any instructions in between times that we should do something different. I would have wanted us to continue in that vein. To see Arsenal for the first 15 minutes being a counter attacking team is kind of unusual and probably not what people would have expected.

“We want to have as many attacking options as we possibly can. The instruction to the full backs was to get forward and at the beginning of the game they did that. When we have Dorrans, Gardner, Brunt and Mulumbu with Sessegnon and Berahino, there isn’t a defender in that group so its not as if it’s a team that’s set up not to attack. It’s a team set up to try and play through midfield and get forward. We didn’t do it well enough at times. By the end it was a bit more back to front and we had the physical presence of Samaras and Anichebe so you are looking then at a different way of getting from back to front.

“It is whichever way has to be done to try and win the game but I would prefer us to have control of the game rather than play knock down football. But if the only way for us to win games is to play knock down football then that’s what we will do.”

Albion have now scored one goal in four games - and that was an own goal at Leicester. Only Saido Berahino has scored more than a single goal. Irvine says everyone is feeling the strain.

“It’s not just Saido, all of us. When he was in that position and the linesman’s flag went up I was massively disappointed because I really fancied him to score.”

Source: Birmingham Mail

You couldn't make it up - not only did we not muster a shot during this supposedly marvellous first 15 minutes, but it was actually 54 minutes before we had a shot of any description. Make way, make way - tactical genius at work....

[Dexy]

In response to the above post .....Give me strength !
I can't even bring myself to read Irvine's thoughts on the Official Site , they make me cringe that much.

[section5]

Irvines comments are laughable there what a clown I think we need our own banner like the arsenal fans get him out Alan no idea Irvine

[WBAinDEVON]

Thin Ice Alan. unbelievable.

Just shows they are not playing for him

[Morany]

The instruction to the full backs was to get forward and at the beginning of the game they did that

So what about the rest of the game Alan? It's your job to instruct the players on how to play, make them play out your 'tactics'

[seteefeet]

He works 13-14 hours a day you know, says so in today's Mail. Seems to want credit for his commitment, however, if he is working that many hours and coming up with the same negative rubbish, he should maybe give up and get some early nights.
His musings are getting more and more ridiculous.

[WBAinDEVON]

He has just got to go now

[kc56wba]

He has just got to go now

Mate my bet is that we will have him a bit longer

[Morany]

It is whichever way has to be done to try and win the game but I would prefer us to have control of the game rather than play knock down football. But if the only way for us to win games is to play knock down football then that’s what we will do

Expect long ball to Anichebe tomorrow night. If that's the case it's going to be a long night of watching the likes of Collins constantly beating him

[Jeremy Roland Peace]

He works 13-14 hours a day you know, says so in today's Mail. Seems to want credit for his commitment, however, if he is working that many hours and coming up with the same negative rubbish, he should maybe give up and get some early nights.
His musings are getting more and more ridiculous.

the only way he'll get credit is by results.

anyone could say how many hours a day they work but if the end product is boring and turgid like we've been served up lately maybe more hours are needed !

it's a slippery slope when a manager starts defending themselves

[WorcsWBA]

"We want to have as many attacking options as we possibly can...."

Which is why he has no attacking midfielders (unless you count Samaras as one) on the bench of course.

[Morany]

"We want to have as many attacking options as we possibly can...."

Which is why he has no attacking midfielders (unless you count Samaras as one) on the bench of course.

  He's embarassing himself here isn't he.

Gmac, Baird and Gamboa all on the bench. No need for Baird on there at all for me.

[BB74]

Gary Rowett as replacement anyone? 

[caravanc58]

He works 13-14 hours a day you know, says so in today's Mail. Seems to want credit for his commitment, however, if he is working that many hours and coming up with the same negative rubbish, he should maybe give up and get some early nights.
His musings are getting more and more ridiculous.

sick of hearing how many hours he works, give a monkey an airfix model to build, even if he does 24/7 but assembles it wrong it shows it to be a waste of time and proves he doesn't know what he's doing.

[Mister AT]

sick of hearing how many hours he works, give a monkey an airfix model to build, even if he does 24/7 but assembles it wrong it shows it to be a waste of time and proves he doesn't know what he's doing.

I work 9 hours a day and probably spend 1-2 hours of that not doing very much, give me a medal.

Hes really starting to show himself up abit now.

Like i said earlier, I would love to hear some of the views from inside the club from some of the in the knowers on here.

[Legend]

I felt sorry for him on Saturday, he doesn't deserve half the stick he gets from the fans in my opinion. Pepe Mel gets his name sung after winning 3 games in 17 and nearly relegating us with his methods yet Irvine gets a tough time from the beginning. Need a more positive performance in the West Ham game without question but I hope the atmosphere is good because it can make a difference.

[WorcsWBA]

Pepe Mel gets his name sung after winning 3 games in 17 and nearly relegating us with his methods

The reason for that was because he was brought in specifically to introduce a new way of playing and yet wasn't backed by either the board or the other coaches in any way, shape or form. Blame him for that if you want, but I don't.

[Signor_Maresca]

Need a more positive performance in the West Ham game without question but I hope the atmosphere is good because it can make a difference.

If the team play with intent, spirit and on the front foot from the off I don't think the atmosphere will be a problem.  If its more of the same, then it could turn ugly.

[Ste1987]

Here's a quote from Alan Irvine after the Nottingham Forest away game two weeks before season start.

“You can see we’ve got some lads having to play out of position - like Craig Gardner and Graham Dorrans - not because I want them to play out of position but because that’s where we are at the moment."

Here we are on Dec 1st and he's still playing Dorrans out wide.

But he'd rather do that than play Varela, Gamboa or Blanco there.

Sorry but he must go NOW!

[Morany]

Here's a quote from Alan Irvine after the Nottingham Forest away game two weeks before season start.

“You can see we’ve got some lads having to play out of position - like Craig Gardner and Graham Dorrans - not because I want them to play out of position but because that’s where we are at the moment."

Here we are on Dec 1st and he's still playing Dorrans out wide.

But he'd rather do that than play Varela, Gamboa or Blanco there.

Sorry but he must go NOW!

Nice research that, proving Irvine really hasn't got the foggiest

[dangerman]

It's going to get a lot lot worse before it gets better, that's for sure!