Match Day Thread West Brom vs Southampton K.O 3pm (28/02/2015)

Had chances, but fluffed every one. The damage is done as soon as we let in an early goal. Not as upset as usual, because sadly I now expect it. The only thing to look forward to is an early chance to put this right in the midweek game, but don't get your hopes up as Palace are playing better. I think the team need something different...a golf day, hypnotist, firewalking...whatever, but the pattern needs breaking.

 

7th it is then. Pelle needing a rest is a joke! He had a 10 day break last week when the fa cup was going on.

 

Indeed, people can bang on about us not scoring 40 yard wonder goals or someone channeling Messi and weaving through 5 players, but the defence lost us that game no two ways about it. Think Ron got it wrong too, but to concede like that was suicide.

 

I'm just glad we've got another game so quickly. If we don't score on Tuesday though we've got another 11 days to stew until we go to Stamford Bridge.

 

Yes, but it would just be nice to play an attacking, open team (Liverpool say back too after the early goal). Perhaps our run-in does is no favours after all.

 

It's more to do with the fact we can't score, I guess.

 

We just look very very boring. We've got enough players that can score goals, we just need one of them to be in form or produce some quality to get one. I personally think Long was the wrong substitution and he didn't change the game - IMO we needed an extra man inbetween West Brom's midfield and defence (even if I hate to admit it, this is where we miss Lallana).

 

It's not over, but it's fading. We've simply got to win on Tuesday.

 

That was absolutely woeful. Rubbish, pathetic, and appalling shooting, and we are so predictable. We are a striker short, and Pelle is unfortunately way out of form. We can't buy a goal at the moment.

 

Don't I know it! It's the same old problem (not just this season either). Can Koeman find a way? Utterly frustrated and disappointed after that.

 

Arsenal win tomorrow and we are 4 points behind 4th place. Spurs have a game in hand against QPR. We can't score.

 

I'm really not deflated.

I never expected us to score today. I never expected us to win today (well, for starters you need to score to have a chance of that!). And I've never expected us to finish in the top six.

For me it was going to be a narrow margin between a 0-0 draw and a 1-0 defeat, and so it has proved. Under Pulis, WBA are just as solid as us really.

 

Yes it is fading, but some of the doom and gloom is way over the top. Form changes. We might bang in 5 on Tuesday (and Pardew's teams do tend to be quite open and attacking) - it may well be the right game for us to get going again. Equally MU or Arsenal could start losing their way again.

Unlikely perhaps, but absolutely still possible.

 

I thought Bertrand made a difference today, as he got some good crosses in.

Everyone else--- I don't know... Obviously we need to make some changes and Pelle did miss a sitter so I have no issues with dropping him.

But no one else was very good, either. Tadic, Elia, Mane, Davis, Clyne (on attack) didn't create much either. And it's getting to the point where Koeman's just playing a crazy mish-mash of players trying to make something happen... which just makes it harder because no one's sure where they should be playing or what's going on.

We went 3-5-2, we scrapped 3-5-2. We put Tadic in the middle, we swapped out Wanyama, etc. We ran through just about every tactical attacking option we had in one game and none of it worked.

 

If we were really good enough for top four, we wouldn't need sides to come out and attack us, to allow us to create chances and score.

Nine times out ten, the top sides will find a way to break down ten men behind the ball. We can't.

I will rarely criticise a side for putting men behind the ball and prioritising defending. And right now, pretty much every side in the league should be doing that against us. Swansea set the template, and other sides have continued to follow it with near perfect results. Fair play to them.

 

The team is on a downer at present. Silly points dropped against Swansea, WHU and now WBA. Sixth is achievable, that was my prediction a few weeks ago; even without a prolific goal scorer. We really ought to get something from the Palace game, but home form has been woeful of late - would settle for a scrappy 1-0 Tuesday night.

 

I'd be pretty confident of scoring against Palace (though I may have just gone a bit loopy).

 

Palace had a great game today and with Chelsea away after tuesdays game, I can't see us gaining any points or goals for a while.

 

I've tried not to think about it too much to be honest because there are a lot of different factors that affect it but looking at the table now I have to reflect that if we'd won another couple of our last 5 games (not a huge ask given the opposition) we'd be in third and maybe challenging for second. If that was the case and Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal still had more European games to play then who knows?

As it is we've taken 4 points from 15 and haven't really looked like scoring more than the one goal we've managed in those five games. Don't get me wrong, 7th is still a good season but our recent form is very poor.

 

Our shooting probably has to be the worst in the league - other than Villa maybe.