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.
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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.
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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.
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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.â€
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.
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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.â€
Source:
Birmingham MailYou 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....