Not surprised to see JR included, and I am guessing Fer has made with 1 goal and 1 assist. Before looking at the team I thought perhaps JH made it as he had a 97% pass success rate on Saturday (some 37 out of 38 passes I believe)
It irritated a bit that he described Fer's goal as a "solo effort" whereas in fact, it showed Redders just what could happen if he makes the correct final ball choice!
Exactly what I thought, but at half time on Saturday, I did think the same, and was unsure if he had actually done anything as I could not remember the commentators mentioning his name at any stage until then, and was struggling to recall anything I had seen. Perhaps he just kept it simple and played 5 yard passes, which of course are much easier and largely go unnoticed
JR's performance was key I reckon and without him we still look a bit vulnerable to be honest. Luckily WBA didn't have a striker as potent as Suarez.
The only reason he did not shoot was because even he appreciates that an effort from 50+ yards take something a little special
Also apparently we paid "a lot of money for Fer". If £4m is a lot for a Premier League midfielder I'd love to see what Crooks makes of Wanyama. Didn't realise all Fer's goals have come in the 80th+ minute though. On Howson, like Thai I couldn't really see what he was doing first half, so I watched for him more in the second. He just kept everything ticking over in midfield, helping us keep possession and move WBA around, reminded me a lot of Fox. He made some important tackles too. I was actually really impressed with him. His single missed pass was arguably more Redmond's fault than Howson's too. Canary Call talking him up for England might be a little premature though!
I know, I couldn't believe it when I trawled through the match thread halfway through the second half and saw people were questioning whether Howson was on the pitch - I thought it must have been a wind up! Though to be honest, despite us being in front at that time most of the comments were of the glass half empty persuasion, not really surprising though when you see who was online and posting at the time. Jonny has been absolutely brilliant this season, did I read somewhere that he won player of the month for November? Well deserved if so, lovely player
No-one suggested he is or was anything than a decent player this season but even decent players do not shine all game, every game. By his standards, in the first half, he did appear to be 'missing' much of the time. In fact, the only thing of note I can remember was him conceding a corner. As I suggested above, most of his passes were short and keeping things simple. More often than not, simple short passes, be it backwards, sideways or forward, largely go unnoticed unless it concedes some thing or creates something. On the other hand, Redmond appeared to have an outstanding game, giving the Baggies midfield and back line a headache. Two different approaches to the game, both commendable but for me Redmond 'appeared' to do much more than Howson - but the reality (once seeing some stats) could easily prove the opposite.
He made an absolutely fantastic tackle in the first half, similar to one Leroy made, that was as good a tackle as I've seen from a Norwich player this season. I actually thought at times Redmond's distribution was abysmal at times with him wasting some great opportunities to make better use of the ball, however I agree that on the whole he still had a very good game and is looking to be a fabulous piece of business.
I agree, but I think it's easy to berate a player for having a poor game, but when they are so very young considerable lee-way has to be given - I was impressed that Redmond stated on twitter that he wasn't happy with his final ball or his game overall. I know that sounds a bit like meaningless guff from Redmond, but I think players of his age (Sterling, etc.) too easily bask in the glory of the praise they get from the media and do not seem to recognise that they are a long way from the finished article. The tweet showed that while he got several decent write-ups saying how much of a torrid time he gave West Brom's right-hand side (and he could easily have tweeted a link to one of those articles), he realised his contribution was substantially less than the "easy on the eye" show.
You won't catch me berating him Rob, I am very realistic with any expectations of him at this stage of career and as I said I think he's been a superb signing
Apologies - I didn't mean you were berating him (or indeed if you were I agreed it was justifiable!) I just meant to point out that while he didn't get it right, at least he recognises it! Which is a lot more than many of his peers...
Agree with a number of the points above - Fer being described as costing a lot (in the context of a PL club) is crazy. Howson is a much better player than a lot of people give him credit for and I totally agree with Thurnby's point about the lack of quality in WBA's front line. I reckon if Liverpool and WBA swapped forwards we could easily have got something from Anfield but we'd have taken a hammering at the Hawthorns. Really pleased to see Ruddy have a solid game as I think he has been pretty ordinary for much of the season and made an uncharacteristic amount of errors which have cost us points - Chelsea and Newcastle spring to mind. I think that if this performance is used as a springboard for him to have a great season then it will be a massive boost to the team as I think that his form is critical to our keeping the goals against column sane. For me he is by far the most important player in our back 5 and possibly in the entire team.
Being a wise old sage, well old anyway, I think the Ruddy inspiring confidence in the whole team is evident from the performance last season after his injury, followed by the bounce when he returned, which then dipped when it became evident that he wasn't at his best! Hopefully Saturday's display will give us the bounce again!
