Agreed! Also very grateful that we were spared the spectacle of Rickie on the penalty spot against us.
People seem pretty happy with Virgil! I'll admit, I'm content with a point. Would've been nice to win, but more important to not lose after our recent form, I feel. Thought I'd console myself after Southend 0-1 Shrewsbury with watching our highlights on Sky, but don't think I shall!
I did think the fans were magnificent, waiting for Rickie to go off and then giving him the send off we couldn't previously. He is wasted at The Baggies. In the first 30 minutes he kept dropping off and finding space before playing a threatening ball forward. Then they stopped giving it to him. I was hoping that he and Pelle could swap sides at half time.
Pulis quote about the pen appeal Pulis, who initially joined those appeals, said afterwards that the referee got it right. "I think Callum McManaman dives first before the player touches him," added Pulis. "I'll be having a word with him about that. It was a good decision by the referee."
Schad; it is one area of our game we seem a little weak; that of a Plan B. Pelle was not having a good game, not helped by the service he was getting, but we stuck it out with him up the middle - I would have liked to have seen something a little different with Long pulling the CB's all over the place and creating space for Mane and Tadic exploit.
Honestly, it's time to start working on a new Plan A. Slowly working the ball wide and then pumping crosses in to the box appears to be the current strategy (when it isn't hoofing the ball in the general direction of Pelle), but it takes one hell of a cross or header to beat a set defense, particularly when we only have one or two players in the box...and one of them isn't doing much by way of moving. We need to get back to playing the way we did early last year: we need midfielders and wide players bursting forward to create attacks. We need others making the passes to find them. And we need a striker willing to move early and often so they are doing more than simply congesting the centre of the park.
I made the 400 mile round trip today, The one positive for me was Van Dijk's performance. Poor games from Targett and unfortunately Rodriguez. I spoke to a Baggies fan at the train station after the game and he said in 35 years as a fan it was the worst Baggies performance he'd seen.....
I think the most frustrating thing, is that the way we are playing now has been similarly unproductive for quite a long time now, with the exception of a few freak results. I heard a stat earlier along the lines of us not winning away in 14 games which isn't good enough for a team with our ambition. Some games, Pellè and his flicks will work, but when not if they do, we need to work an alternative and quick, our follow up to last season is looking a little flat currently.
Last away win in the league was the last-gasp Mane winner at QPR in February; I count 10 matches in the interim, during which we have scored 5 goals, gotten 4 points, and gotten blanked 6 times.
Too much is being made of a run of games going in to last season. That's last season. This season we have different personnel and we're just settling in. I think people forget that we much of our success has come from our use of the full backs - and Targett just doesn't offer much coming forward. Suarez is no Clyne, but it is clear that whoever he is playing with always has a willing runner on the overlap. Targett does get up, but he's nervous to go past his wide man. We also have a little Dutch link-up man with top pedigree hiding away injured... I do agree that perhaps we need to try something else away. Pelle does not score away from home, so why not go with a different combination? On his day, I love Pelle. However, today I found his flicks irritating and watching him make no effort at all to track back is infuriating.
Hmm.... I remember that game well. I was fixing a bulb in my car outside in the fricking cold in shorts, t shirt and flip flops..... Despite that, most painful thing was listening to an abject display on Solent... It was a desperate and dull performance as I seem to remember....
It was pretty dire. Oddly, it was also the final in a run of four straight wins that immediately preceded our current woes.
Although last season is in the past, the same mistakes are being made despite the change in personnel. We're still not much closer to knowing Manè/Long/Tadics best position and with Davis and JWP vying eagerly for the least productive player award, with the exception of Clasie's injury.... Our attacking options haven't changed loads. No new out and out striker, Juanmi is still adapting and Oriel seems more holding midfielder we don't appear to be looking much better holistically in an attacking way.
