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

IMHO . We will not finish top 4 , very lucky to finish top 6 .

This has NOTHING to do with the quality of our players , but the lack of them .

Wake up , smell the coffee , we will NEVER compete on a level footing with the BIG ( Wealthy ) teams .

And don't get me started on filling a ground with 35,000. + regularly .........

That my friends , is the reality of our situation .

Just enjoy the ride

 

It's really disappointing to be going through this run of form at the crunch time in the season. But we are still an awful referee, and some bad luck in a couple of games away from third; it's still been an amazing season.
To be honest, I don't really know what the answer is. If this was football manager, I'd probably just turn my laptop off

 

And not just today either. Under Pardew, they've won all five away games - including against us in the cup (and that was when we could score!). In fact, even when you include the back end of Warnock's tenure, they only away games which Palace have lost since 4 October were to Man Utd and Man City (both before Xmas).

I suspect that anyone who thinks that Tuesday will a nice three points for us is in for a surprise. Given our current home form and their current away form, there's a case for saying that Palace start minor favourites.

 

Oh really. Only temporarily. We did score 8 in 1 game this season. Admittedly that seems a long time ago but we're just low on confidence at the moment.

 

****! Does this poor run of form put us is the relegation zone? Damn. Oh well, the championship is good.

Oh, what? We are staying up. Great.

Come on you reds!

 

Since that game, we've scored 19 goals in 19 league matches. It's fair to say we haven't been an attacking dynamo for most of this season.

 

A truely woeful performance, a million miles from what we were seeing earlier in the season. Unfair to singe out Pelle, but his movement is awful, with virtually no threat to opossing defences. When was the last time he really intiminated a defender, seems like a long, long time ago.

 

I've just about had enough of this thread. Far far too negative. We're 5th in the league. CHEER UP FOR ****S SAKE!!!!!!!!

 

Well 3-5-2 really worked today.

 

It is. A genuinely competitive league, very open and very exciting this season. My only Saints based regret in recent years is that we didn't win it in 2012.

 

Keep in mind, we've had some pretty stellar, kinda lucky strikes and some poor officiating go against us. We should probably have at least 2 or 3 more points over the last four game stretch. Which is not enough for CL maybe, but it's not like we're suddenly terrible or even mediocre.

And the season isn't over, and next year is another chance. The odds are pretty heavily stacked against a club breaking the glass ceiling, and I wonder if anyone can. I'm a realist that way. But if anyone can do it, why not us? And why is it bad to root for us to do so? Kind of silly to just dismiss like, the next 15 seasons because we've had 4 bad games.

 

I have three comments on that.

Firstly, we fell behind. When we scored first against Everton and Palace with 3-5-2, we went on and scored two more in each game and won both. But here, going one goal down and having WBA looking to sit back and counter us meant that three CBs become redundant. I'm not blaming the formation for WBA's goal nor for WBA (legitimate) tactics.

Secondly, it's not as if we suddenly scored a couple of goals when we went back to 4-3-3.

Thirdly, we had no Toby today. Toby is the one who can really deal with the ball at his feet - his range of passing gives Morgan a run for his money. I think you ideally need that ball playing CB when you play three CBs.

 

I might go and make a cup of tea......bought some twinnings today.
Chill out relax, we will beat palace on Tuesday .....you read it first here.

 

I agree with the positive sentiment, but the inability to score atm is boring to watch. That is all.

 

If course it is, I agree. This is just one of those hurdles that have to be overcome. Three years ago, teams wouldn't be parking the bus against Saints. We need to learn how to deal with it and the sooner the better. It is all part of our progression and we need to start taking it as a compliment.

I remember posting at the start of the season that progress isn't always a straight line graph going upwards. Life isn't smooth and easy. We will bounce back.

COYR

 

We can't say that the 3-5-2 worked But it also it didn't NOT work.

I was dubious whether it would fix anything, and remain so. But this game was not really a fair test since we played it for so little time. Alderweireld when healthy will play whether we have 3 or 4 at the back. Admittedly in perhaps a different role, but not sure how much difference it makes.

I don't know. It's just a bit of a frustrating time right now. I'm not that convinced about any of the solutions people are putting forth (3-5-3, Long for Pelle, etc.). But we definitely need to change something. And while our attack just isn't that great, I don't see it as so hopelessly incompetent that we can't score no matter what.

There's a solution somewhere, I just can't think of what it is. Hopefully Koeman knows.

 

Yeah, exactly. We lost the last two games to early goals and an inability to break down packed defences. Early in the season, teams weren't taking us seriously. Now they are and they've worked out how to stop us scoring. I'm sure the manager and players are as upset as the supporters are. They're trying as hard as they can and, we're still 5th FFS!!! Worst case scenario, we drop to 7th. Still a bloody good season for a team everyone was writing off before a ball was kicked.
We'll bounce back, we need a bit more confidence and a different style - something which they'll be working on, so let's just enjoy the ride and stop moaning!!
You lot sound like Arsenal fans!!

 

I agree with this, I don't think the system was at fault but when we conceded so early it made three defenders unnecessary as West Brom really weren't that interested in attacking or even having the ball. I can see why he chose it - we can push on Clyne and Bertrand and still have enough protection from the counter - but once we conceded it just meant that our balance wasn't right to be chasing the game.

 

Not really sure I'd call it 'parking the bus'. Teams are sitting back and hitting us on the counter, and their counters have often carried more threat than our dithering around the box.

 

Schad, I think you probably got my drift, no?