We went at them right from the start and it payed off big time! playing Pablo,Dyer and Routs was a master stroke as WBA were chasing shadows for most of the first half ! some of our football was at times breath taking and at one point i thought we could have gone on to score 4 or 5 goals such was our passing and play. Dissapointed with conceeding at the end of the half and it beggers beleif that a keeper as big as tremmel cant come off his line now and again and be pro active, that is a minor point though and WBA being such an in form team we had to expect them to throw something at us. Pablo...wow!! what a player he is becoming for us, think he is playing on another level with his intelligent passing and hie football brain is working at a higher level than most, some of his passes were laudrup esq such was the disguise and vision of them, the opposition couldnt cope with it and he continues to look every inch the star player. Routledge and dyer both played great today but i have to say that our first two players remain Pablo and routs with nathen a close 3rd, lucky us i say !! Chico is awesome! had his hands full against Lukaku but apart from one time when he got the wrong side of him he pretty much had the player in his pocket,ash was solid as well Rangel was a bit sloppy again Leon britton was back to his best tonight which was great to see,nothing beats watching that boy when he fires on all cylinders!! Ki was steady but gave a few sloppy balls away in critical areas which is something i notice he does quite a bit of, there seems to be no urgancy sometimes,he is still growing into the team. We saw the benifit of strength in depth tonight! when Pablo got injured we brought on JDG and nothing really changed,we brought on Kemy for Michu at the right time also, once again Laudrup gets it spot on for me with selection,tactics and subs..Jeez this guy could well be the real deal as a top class coach and manager !! The players deserve a good night out tonight and we can go to Arsenal looking for the win,something that is very possible Hope Pablo is fit for saturday but if he isnt then Dyer and Routledge isnt so bad is it !! Simply awesome tonight boys !! Thoughts ??
Drug tests for the entire squad at the Liberty tonight Seriously good result against a good Baggies side (until tonight). Instills a little fear about our trip in a couple of weeks but hopefully our defence will keep up the solid performances.
Great performance but we seem to be a one half team. We defended well second half but I would like to have seen us go and and really hammer home the first half performance. It seems we have problems when other teams raise their game. I think we took them by surprise early doors and played superb stuff but when WBA got their act together it was a different story. For me, we are still in the early stages of our development and we need to start putting in 90 minute performances. When we do, some team is going to get an almighty battering!! Agree about KI. He is not urgent enough and can be quite sloppy. It might account for the reports I read that Celtic were not unhappy about losing him. He is far from the finished article and I would like to think that ML is working with him to improve his game. I think I have yet to see him in a sprint and he doesn't often drive forward at pace with the ball. But he will get better I'm sure. All in all, a great three points earned by a magnificent first half performance. Now, let's start seeing two halves of football like that. Can't wait.
By the time QPR fixture rolls around again we should have the 90min performance sorted. Wouls that make it a 10-0 win?... ;-)
While we havent completed a 90min performance i do think that we got our heads straight second half and took the sting out of them, we know where our weak points lay and im sure most other teams do too, putting long into our box makes us flap a little bit, e must also expect WBA to have a crack when being 3 down, i was thinking about the Wolves game last season when we went that far in front and was a bit worried!! Thankfully this team has alot more resolve, striving for a complete performance will be a target, i do think it was in the plan tonight to hit them early as that would have meant they would open up space for us to exploit when they chase us,and so it proved to be! Pablo has fantastic vision and some of his passes put them of their game as they didnt know how to contain him and our movement. Ki i have noticed last few times is very slack on the edge of our area and that is going to cost us one day! i know you picked this up in his game very early on and im of the opinion that its a part of his game that Laudrup is aware of. Special mention of Luke Moore , as you all know i rate him highly, i would like us to give him a couple of games to prove himself in this team, he is a strong player and looked hungry to impress tonight,he was every so unlucky not to score after he rolled the defender perfectly.
Was a great performance tonight against a team bang in form!! Got a good feeling about the Arsenal game!!
sorry Norway, don't agree about Moore. We need a higher quality striker. All told a cracking performance today and the Viking got his tactics bang on. # We will, we will Michu!
Great first half frustrating second half. More to the point someone's missing......should we have someone on suicide watch? COYS!
That first half performance was probably the most complete display of attacking play you're likely to see . the interplay and movement off the ball was at times sublime.WBA looked shell shocked and it'll be interesting to see what the pundits have to say on MOTD as to whether we were so good or they were so poor. To concede a goal from the only time they got near our goal was disappointing and that probably gave a physiological edge to them .i'm mean any side which creates absolutely nothing for 40 odd minutes then scores at their first meaningful attack. I told my mate that the first 10 minutes into the second half would be critical as they would throw everything at us , I was right but that 10 minutes stretched into the majority of the second half. We defended resolutely and at times we appeared to give the ball back to them to cheaply but in fairness every man out there tonight played for the team and that should be noted ,MIchu gave the ball away a couple of times but he made sure he got it back and that to me exemplified the attitude in the team tonight Well chuffed
2nd half was simply a case of closing the game out, getting no injuries or yellow cards. 1st half was just sensational. We played breathtaking football and a very good West Brom team were totally outplayed. The only downside for me personally was seeing that mad bugger FFS before the game. I'm sure he had his Mark Gower shirt on again
Not for me either NJ after the barracking he got when he came on , I thought that would fire him up, but no, sorry pal imo Luke's a no go.
Norway I agree with everything you said except what you said about Rangel. The last few games he has been sloppy, but tonight he was on fire. Moved forward with a lot of pace. The only player I think didn't perform very well was Tremmel. He didn't move off his line. Then again he could have been frozen stiff with inactivity. Others have mentioned that we are a 1 half team. I disagree, no team can keep that pace up that we did in the first half. West Brom came out second half confident. That confidence by the 70th minute was gone and Swansea were in the ascendency again. Dominated the last 20mins. No goals yes, but still domination. Pure class.
forgot the mighty rangel, he had a good game imo. Credit to davies too for drilling that cross in for routs 2nd goal.
I don't agree on Moore either, not really good enough quality, and he's not motivated enough for my liking. Will be interesting to see what happens in January sales, as for Laudrup, he's the real deal, best manager we've ever had, his subs are mostly spot on, his tactics are pin sharp, as is his first team selection, though my only gripe is not using the talent of Dyer enough!............
We absoluteley destroyed them in the first half and then gave a sucker goal away with the last kick (why do we mess around by our own box so close to half time ??? Strange second half where they never really created clear chances. 20 points in the bag - fantastic.
Jimmy greaves was right ....Football is a funny old game...We were awesome tonight and made High fliers WBA look average.... 20pts is half way to safety and nobody predicted that to happen so quick...Routledge was brilliant and my MOM...but you cant fault anyone really....
