I watched on Safctv glad I did by the sounds of it. like Dodds said in his presser we aren’t far away just a few tweaks and he was proven right. Probs Robert’s best game this season as he had the impressive Huggins there to help him out. people might not agree but maybe Clarke needs a little rest he’s played every minute this season and he’s still a bairn. Imagine him coming on against a tired defence.
Love that performance, was a pleasure to watch at times. Obvious mentions to Ballard and Hume but jobe lead that line so well, he’s my striker for the time being. Shout out to Dodds too, he got a lot right today and West Brom are very solid and threatening, so was a very good and well deserved 3 points.
I don’t know if Clarke needs a rest, I mean he probably does. But what he really needs is a tactical tweak or two. Opposition teams are double marking him. They’re able to because a) we have no overlapping full back and b) our build up play is too slow which gives them time to get into position. He needs a left back overlapping him to attract one of the double markers. And he needs fast build up to stop them getting into double marking position anyway. It’s no coincidence that when Pritchard comes on, it frees Clarke a bit. Because Pritchard comes really close to him and draws attention of one of the defenders. It’s just subtle tweaks. But for the last month or so he’s been dead easy to defend against.
That’s the fault of his teammates not Clarke though. Have to take advantage of teams doubling up on him because that means generally a midfielder is dragged out of position. Should’ve scored a few today too.
Pembele may solve all those issues if he’s as good as reported. Think humes games will be numbered moving forward because as good as he’s been he’s nowhere near as good as Huggins imo.
Clarke to me is playing like a kid in a playground that knows he’s better than everyone else, once he adds releasing the ball at the right time he’s ceiling is massive.
We might end up seeing him in a defensive mid role as he seems to have all the attributes for it: physical, good in the air, decent passing and has enough pace for it. Ba is now a winger and Jobe can play further forward, I feel like with these young lads they're still very malleable in terms of their long term position.
Thought both subs were very good decisions. Aouchiche was decent but Pritch gave us much more control and creativity. Mayenda held the ball up, made some good runs and created space for Pritch for the second goal. Much better than chucking multiple subs on at the same time and it just being completely ineffective, just seemed like a much more thought out process today.
Roberts just pipped Hume for me today but it was close, both were outstanding. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if a few teams come in for Hume in January. Hopefully not.
Before it came about I was very Pro VAR. Since it came into being, and based only on watching Prem Lg Games on TV, I've turned against it. Today I listened to most of the Game on BBC N/C but also managed to watch most of the second half on my computer using Sky GO, at the same time. According to the radio, the officials made a number of mistakes that might well have cost us dear, and which would/should have been reversed by VAR, My Question is 'What's The Answer'. (And the first clever barsteward to respond with 42, can stick his Ford Prefect up his Slartibartfast )
Thought we played well today and used our width more but WBA came to playland trued to attack us a lot more than most teams recently which plays into our hands. That said a good result and hopefully confidence building.
