Starting XI: Schwarzer, Riether, Hughes, Hangeland, Riise, Duff, Sidwell, Baird, Kacaniklic, Berbatov, Rodallega. Subs: Stockdale, Kelly, Kasami, Karagounis, Briggs, Trotta, Smith. Is that young Alex Smith on the bench? That's nice to see.
Kaca has looked really good down the Left! Although i am a little concerned as Hugo looks pretty lazy when coming back from offside, it's like he's just standing waiting for play to bring him back onside instead of actually coming back a little.
I see what you mean conzo. He seems to be allowing himself to be getting crowded out, he's sitting too far forward. Berba is playing deeper which is strange, but he seems to be doing ok there. It's all us so far, good stuff and we're passing it around comfortably.
I must say also that Sidders has done well. He's gone for the long ball a couple of times but he's not done much wrong.
Yeah sidders had a good game today, very steady. The break seems to have done us some good. Overall a comfortable win for us Berba was superb I hope he keeps it up!
A competent and comfortable win. Everyone played their part, including the subs (young Smith was so confident and just looked the part). Picking out a few - Baird's distribution was superb Riether linked well with Duff although his crossing could have been better at times Hugo poor early touch and was desparate to score and unlucky not to but if he'd used the ball more effectiively goodness knows how mant we'd have got Berbatov what can you say - tell me that's a lazy player - sheer quality Kaca fine performance and hopefully with experience will even make more of that final ball Berbatov is the obvious candidate for MOTM but I going to give my vote to Chris Baird; primarily because he stood up to the mark when we needed him to.
Dimitar 'Smiler' Berbatov sums up his day - http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2012/september/15/berbatov-wba-reaction Oh, and we're 3rd on MOTD !!
Reither and Duff were just overrunning Ridgewell in the second half, going past him almost at will. Duff seemed to really pick his game up in the second half and he has looked top quality so far this season. Kaca was a little frustrating in the first half, as he didn't seem confident in his crossing. But when he ran at Billy Jones he looked a different player and looked great. No offense to Richardson, but Kaca showed why he should be first choice and starting plenty of games at the moment. There was very much a "get the ball to Berbatov" mentality at times, but I don't think that's a bad thing at the moment. The difference between this and the Norwich game was that Baird/Sidwell did not dominate CM in quite the way Diarra/Dembele could; both of them seem second midfielders and could well slot in well beside Diarra. Plenty of reasons to be positive. C58, do you know what was wrong with Petric? Our bench looked light on attacking options today.
Evening gents… just got back from the game via several pubs and thought I’d let you know my thoughts on today’s game. In the first half we dominated possession but didn’t really create many chances. We looked confident but again lacked creativity. Berbatov looked quality and played in a free role occasionally dropping deep or out to the left right which made him hard for West Brom to pick him up. I think had we had more creativity in midfield he may have got his hatrick. Most of our chances today were created by or went through Berbatov. Out midfield looked confident and fairly strong however did lack creativity. I though Kacaniklic played well, he made the first goal and was bought down for the penalty. I was also impressed by Kasami when he came on. He looks like a very confident player. I’d love to see him given more minutes on the pitch this year. Ben Foster had a great game in the second half. He pulled off some great saves and without him it could have been 5 or 6. Apart from him I though West Brom were average. But the sending off did kill the game from their point of view, Rodallega was poor. Had a number of oppertunities and didn’t take any of them. In the last 10 min he hit the bar when presented with an open goal and it was eventually put in by Sidwell. Rodallega just say on the ground punching the turf rather then celebrate. I think he is a poor player. Overall it was vey positive and hopefully with Ruiz back in the side we may get that creativity I think we desperately lack at the moment. Also on what I have seen so far we have got gem in Berbatov.
Fantastic result and performance to boot today. I have to admit, Sidwell/Baird in CM didn't fill me with much confidence prior to kick-off but both were superb. Only niggle for me was Rodallega, played out of his skin today but the lad needs a goal. The longer it gets the harder it will be. Petric and Ruiz when fully fit will be looking at taking his place. Sidwell saved his bacon today when he scored the rebound from Hugo's open goal miss. Excellent: Berbatov, Kaca, Duff, Baird, Sidwell, Riether, Kasami Good: Hangeland, Hughes, Riise, Hugo, Schwarzer To think, we still have Diarra, Frei, Senderos, Davies, Ruiz and Petric all to come back from injury.
My prediction totally wrong again,must agree with the views of others, Roddelga poor,cant wait to see our injured players back.
Hugo was not particularly great today. However, it is important to consider he is not a first team player; both Petric & Berbatov are ahead of him. Last year our third striker was Sa (or AJ, if you count Dempsey as a striker). The year before it was Diomansy Kamara. Hugo is better than those players, in my opinion. Hugo is trying, but it is not coming off for him yet. Let's not rip into him too hard after only four games. I'll be interested to see how we play when Ruiz returns. Logic would indicate he'd start slotted in behind Berbatov, with Duff and Kaca on the wings. But I wonder whether he'll see action on the wing as well, to accommodate Petric. Time will tell, but it's nice to have some good selection dilemmas for a change.
Great result, and - judging from what I've read so far - a great performance. I would like to repent for my earlier pessimism, and for ever doubting the centre-mid pairing of Baird and Sidwell. I shall endeavour to return to sunny optimism for our forthcoming visit to Wigan, where we usually... oh. Sunny optimism, sunny optimism, sunny optimism... (repeat to fade).
The MotD coverage was terrible. 58%-42% possession, 23-10 shots, 14-8 on target. Yet the highlights suggest that that West Brom had parity in the game. Sadly our highlights were curtailed, as they wanted 2 minutes to talk about Berbatov. At least I was there, so I know what actually happened!
