No Sympathy for West Brom, I really don't care - My thoughts on the WBA game

WBA had quite a few chances, mainly due to our **** passing today. We gifted them possession so many times. Sometimes it was bad luck, sometimes it was just poor chemistry.

The main reason I have no sympathy for WBA is because many times when we were on a break and attacking, they pulled down and body checked one of our players, mainly Perch and Jonas. They obstructed players from joining attacks, so they can eat ****. It's about time our late game pressure paid off, and I think this goal makes up for the ****ty goal we conceded vs Sunderland.

It wasn't even bad defending that lead to us conceding chances really, it is our own fault for pissing about with the ball in our own half and making a lot of unnecessary passes.

I personally think if anyone deserved it, we did. WBA camped back and just lobbed balls up to Long for the last 20 minutes, so they had a part to play in their last minute disappointment for negative tactics, sitting back and also not executing many balls very well.

Ratings -

Krul - 8 - Some dreadful goal kicks and distribution, and didn't end the game on a high note, but he kept us in the game with some great saves against Lukaku who really tore us a new arsehole.

Simpson - 5 - Obviously he's taking a bit of time to get back up to speed, but he's back to his old tricks again. He just totally backed off all game, and he really needed to be subbed.

Willo - 6 - Not bad, but very shakey 2nd half. Got caught out a bit at times.

Colo - 8 - If it weren't for his calmness on the ball and reading of situations, we'd have been ****ed today. His participation was vital.

Santon - 6.5 - Some great runs to get us up the pitch, and decent defending, but dilly dallyed a bit too much and lost possession at times.

Ben Arfa - 6 - Really good first half. Some fantastic runs, and we should have scored from one of them. Shola's finish A bit of a passenger 2nd half tbh.

Perch - 7 - Thought he was good today. Some good tackling, really unlucky to be booked IMO. His pace in defensive positions and in the center of midfield really helped us out.

Cabaye - 6 - ****ing silly booking and some unnecessary tackles. But I thought he passed the ball well at times, and got us up the pitch with some good long balls. Despite getting a silly booking, there were also some good tackles from him in the game.

Jonas - 6.5 - A so-so first half, but I thought he defended well 2nd half. Some great tackles and winning back of possession.

Shola - 7 - Great assist, and he shows why a target man is needed in a 4-4-2. Some really ****ty play at times, but that's just Shola. I thought he was one of our best players in the first half and did some fantastic tracking back and defending. Don't know why he was right wingback (LOL) but there you go.

Ba - 6.5 - Good goal, decent performance.

Obertan - N/A -

Sammy - N/A - A flukey goal that hit Cisse, but he really does strike them well with his left foot. Thought he showed some great skill at times, and I was concerned in the past that he'd not be able to do it at PL level. Well he's showing great promise.

Cisse - N/A - Good energy and desire, and a cheeky effort that I'm glad didn't go in, because it would have been really upsetting to see such a superb effort offside.

Overall - Good first half, poor second half. We gifted Albion so much possession in critical areas and almost handed them a win.

MOTM - Colo. He was great apart from that little ****ty mistake late on.

 

Shola 7 ha ha ha ha

Krul was man of the match and West Brom should have won if you ask me! I'm pleased we won, however it means Pardew will persist with our very weird tactics for the short term at least.

we need to get back to basics, keep the ball on the floor as much as possible and try and get in behind.

 

We were lucky to get a draw. In the second half West Brom came out with all guns blazing and I was just waiting for them to score.
We cant pass and hold on to the ball. Too many silly mistakes today. Colo was MOTM but we are relying too much on the lad. Santon was ok but Williamson does not and never will fill me with confidence.
Cabaye looked poor without Tiote and Perch wasnt at his best today. HBA trying to do it all himself instead of looking for the simple pass.
Jonas looked better at LB than LM today. Ba up front by himself, dont know what Pardew was thinking.

 

I don't really think keepers pulling off saves should be classed as your side getting lucky. They got passed our defence a few times, but Krul made the stops and that's what having a top class keeper in your side does for you when you're playing poor.

I think it was a game of two halves and despite WBA having the better chances, I thought we deserved the lead in the first half. 2nd half WBA could have scored a couple more but couldn't finish off their moves.

At the end of the day the pulling down of our players and body checking makes me believe that WBA deserved what they got late on. They sat back with negative tactics and were just humping balls up but failing.

WBA had a part to play in their own demise.

 

Tash mate I watched on TV today and we were sooo lucky and created next to thing the entire game if you were a West Brom fan you would be saying Lukaku's shots were ****e which they were to be honest but I agree Krul made the saves well, however if it was a better finisher we would have been 2-1 down at half time which was our better half. We were toothless in attack and easy to get in behind .

 

First half yes was our but in the second we didnt push on and get the killer goals. In second half West Brom deserved their goal and I still say we were lucky.
We have to get back to passing and holding the ball better.
Disagree about them humping the ball up sometimes they played some lovely football.

 

I agree, our 2nd half performance didn't deserve a win, but WBA were dirty ****ers in midfield and, as I said, body checked our players and pulled them down during our attacks so we were always a man short.

They cheated and for that reason I don't give a ****.

 

yeah they passed between our shower all game long if anything we were hoofing it all game.

You can guarnantee Williamson will every time

 

What's worrying me is that we've conceded 5 headed goals already this season out of 13, we are the only EPL team to not score from a set-piece so far this season and we have been very narrow.

Not signing a CB is really biting us in the arse at the moment. Pardew even said in pre-season on his TotalSport radio appearence that he wanted a "dominant aerial centre back, who could also grab some goals". We didn't get that.

 

We only scored once from a set piece last season I believe. We just don't have a dominant header of the ball. Douglas would have been perfect for our defensive and attacking problems IMO.

Oh well.

 

Krul was MOM by a country mile. But for him we would have lost.

 

Most worryingly for me is that our game plan of late seems to be to just give the ball to HBA and hope he either scores or creates a wonder goal. All of our attacking play comes through him, it's far too predictable.

I can't remember the last time Cabaye ran the game from the middle of the park. Each week I keep hoping we'll hit our stride and play with some sort of fluidity. Roll on Liverpool and hopefully a much improved performance from us.

 

Our tactics this season are too complicated if you ask me.

I have watched carfully and all season are strikers have their backs to goal, Jonas is all over the place but never doing anything good, Ben Arfa clearly has a free role, Cabaye is too deep for me, Santon keeps being swapped left for right and basically what I'm saying is we are all over the place and look confused.

 

Got this exactly spot on, though think if West Brom had gone for the win more they would have won 2-1, rather than lose 2-1.

 

I think your right about last season. Ba header from a corner vs Wolves (a). This is one of main problems at the moment.

Again I think your ratings are over-zealous but I normally do. Shola was the main reason we couldn't keep possesion although he was epic at winning the ball in the air, 7 is a little generous and I thought Cabaye, Williamson, Simpson, Gutierrez and Ben Arfa were dreadful.

KRUL 8, Santon 7.5, Coloccini 7, Williamson, 5.5, Simpson 5.5, Perch 6, Gutierrez 5, Cabaye 5.5, Ben Arfa 5, Ba 7, Ameobi 6. Obertan 5 and Cisse 5.5 both played about 30 mins and were both ineffective. Sammy 6 played about 10 mins and ran.

 

Been saying that for a while about the length of time, got to say thought against Sunderland and Brugge the corners were looking better.

 

Doesn't seem like we disagree that much, you normally just seem to give players 1 or 0.5 less than I do.

I don't think Santon was better than Colo really. Colo saved us so many times with the way he reacted. The way he dealt with Lukaku and others off the ball was excellent. He seems to be able to glide between players and the ball.

Obertan was ****, he made one good defensive tackle and that was it. He deserves no more than a 2.

Sammy made some good runs and skills, but I personally can't really decide on player ratings for the subs. Sammy was definitely the best.

 

Sammy is far too ball greedy, however at least he knows what the ****ing aim is if we get the ball ie try and score a ****ing goal so run and have a shot maybe?

Benny is getting less ball greedy but it is making him worse.

 

I think we looked worst after Shola came off. 4-4-2 just doesn't work without a target man.

I think we need to keep the ball on the ground more. We seem to be pissing about and trying to play technical football, but lobbing it long at the same time.

The best thing we can do IMO is look to the system that Spurs had for a while with Crouch. They played technical football but also used a target man to knock down for others.

We can do that. I think we did that vs Sunderland and at times in the first half today. We cannot play Ba and Cisse in a 4-4-2, simple as. With Shola and Ba together we've looked our best. When Shola came off we couldn't win **** in the air, and gave WBA possession.

 

I think we are ****e because our system doesn't work and it's drained the confidence from our players week by week.

Get out ther have ago and enjoy it

in other words a simple system and have ago for goodness sake it's a simple game thats been over complicated these days.