Fair point, but he's made of glass. Would rather play Quina in the holding role why we are waiting for Louza to come back.
I chocked on my coffee when I saw him coming on, a late rash tackle was just what we needed to sum up the night. Thankfully we survived.
I was just picking up on the fact that you had called it “a fair result”. We don’t always get what we deserve, but calling it a fair result suggested we had on this occasion.
Yes we were 2nd best all night but West Brom still didn't manage to outscore us, which is more a reflection on them. There's a reason they had the 2nd lowest conversion rate last season. It's concerning however how slow Edwards was to react, a change of formation or something could have been warranted after 25 mins even if we were 1-0 up. When we eventually made subs the flow of the game seemed to switch enough to hold out for a point. I thought we tried all sorts of formations in pre season for these exact scenarios when we are on the back foot?
I said he was a good shot stopper. I never mentioned his confidence. The rest of his game, early days, early days. Give it time.
Now I think about it, one big positive tonight is that we didn’t hit the first man from a corner all evening! I’m electing to ignore the fact we didn’t actually have a corner all game long - not beating the first man really makes my blood boil. So this one was good for the blood pressure in that regard.
You may be right, but it would have taken two super heroes to avoid being overrun today. Dennis, Sarr and Pedro are not natural grafters, when it comes to battling back or fighting with defenders to secure possession from our defensive clearances. We were swamped in midfield on an ongoing basis.
To be fair, I think he did change it early by dropping Joao Pedro into a far deeper role and then narrowing Sarr and Dennis as a front pair. Problem was, Dennis was trash all game, Joao Pedro wasn’t much better (but at least he, unlike Dennis, tried).
Surely one or both of Gosling or Quina would have improved things in the last half hour. That excuse for a midfield had to be changed. You wonder what on earth the real story is with signings of Kalu, Bayo and Okoye for millions who then don't kick a ball. Then we have cheapo, limited crap like Manaj and Kayembe. Edwards is new and is learning, but we aren't far off asking him to polish a turd.
Regardless of performances, that's 4 points out of 6 against 2 teams who should by up there come May, which I'd have taken last week!
If I was a WBA supporter I would be gutted, play like they did, have 12 corners against our none, yes 0, have numerous chances and not win, at least we can tweak somethings and play to our strengths, WBA I doubt can play any better!
Midfield is the problem. Doesn't protect the defence and doesn't link the attack. There were warning signs against Sheffield United. There is no out ball for the defence when we have possession so panic sets in. Clearly cleverly and kayembe are not good enough at the moment but the formation feels unbalanced given the players playing. Either we get the players we need to play the formation or we change it altogether.
Sarr seems to be an instinctive player; if he plays 'off the cuff' then good things can happen; BUT if he has time to think about it then a pass will go astray, a shot will be scuffed or a penalty dribbled along the ground.
I think the story is that we've spent millions on footballers who aren't good enough so Gino's mate gets a nice cut of the deals. Nothing more to it.
Worrying to read that we were swamped in midfield again. Perhaps Edwards thinks it's all we have in the squad at present. I have never rated Kayembe. He tries, but he is just another Belgium 2nd Division player. Cleverley looks worn out already after just two games. If he was a horse, he would be shot. Cathcart, just dreadful. Can or will Edwards change it? His first real test on selection coming up on Friday. Stick or twist? Does he have a plan B? What ever happened to Plan B? Is he still acting and singing?
If I see Kamara as a rwb + the same midfield as in the first two matches, I'm not sure I'll have the strenght to watch the next match.
I was thinking the same. We had no answer to their (typical championship) hard graft and energy, and like last season we definitely seem to insist on playing our own game at our own pace. It definitely wasn't the new, high energy, high pressing team we were promised...
He certainly asked Joao to drop deep to help the midfield during a break in play. Pretty sure I saw his assistant speaking to him and holding up 3 fingers during that conflab. Thought Kayembe had more influence in the second half. Not sure if he just gave him a rocket up the arse, but he at least seemed to be on the same plane of existence as the rest of the squad unlike the first half.
Kayembe £4m Manaj £3m Okoye £5m Bayo £5m Kalu £2m We have a goat "Messi" not my idea on the name. He covers a lot of grass, Not afraid to put his head in if you p*ss him off and kicks out a few times Scott/Gino, he is yours for €5m. I'll throw in a bag of feed as well. Airfare included.
I was a bit annoyed with the ref on the penalty. He was messing about speaking to players on the corner of the box for ages. Sarr should have stepped away - I knew he was going to miss as he'd stood still there for too long thinking about it...
I don't know how we didn't win that game and at the same time I don't know how we didn't lose that game. Confused.
Can anyone explain why it wasn't a red card for the penalty? Double jeopardy only comes into play if there is a genuine attempt to play the ball and there wasn't, it was a tangle of legs from behind.
Happy to stand corrected but I don’t think it was intentional from Ajayi. Looked to me like he was trying to keep up with Sarr, lost his footing and balance and took Sarr down with him. Stonewall pen but not a cynical deliberate foul to prevent him scoring. Might be wrong but that’s how I saw it.
I’m not sure that should matter though? The rule is denying a goal scoring opportunity and that’s what he did, intent shouldn’t really come into it in this case. Even more so given he was last man. Just a baffling decision and no wonder he didn’t complain about the decision - he knew he was lucky to be on the pitch. Bet WBA couldn’t believe their luck when he wasn’t even booked.
I didn't see much of Quina on loan last season, has he changed much from the obviously talented, but pretty brainless, and pretty weak player who we saw play for us last time? Agree on Gosling, surely he has more in the tank than Cleverley (not exactly sure how he'd fit in the side, but what's going on with TDB?) Kayembe (who will be a useful member of the squad this year), Bayo (who might be depending on personnel come September) and Kalu (who may as well pack his bags now I reckon) were obviously Mogi specials, Okoye as far as I know isn't (although it wouldn't surprise me if he had his dirty mitts on that deal), but it's very odd that we signed him so far in advance when he wasn't discernably better than either of our keepers at the time, it didn't seem like an issue at the time, but now we have Rob Edwards in charge, it seems his lack of ability on the ball is keeping him out of the team. Reserving judgment on Manaj at the moment as we've seen very little of him (would he be our main striker in the absence of Sarr/Dennis I wonder? Seems to have the nod over Bayo despite them both being NHG)
Sarr really went from the sublime to the ridiculous tonight. A huge gulf in achievement summed up in two shots from the same boot. A real Sarr-chasm.
**** performance. Bachmann got us a point. Clevs and Kaykay cant be starting as a pair. Crapcart and Kalamity Kabs where ****. Sierralta was decent. Kamara looked lost on the right side. Not really his fault. Rob needs to play him on the left ASAP. King Ken was outclassed and outnumbered. As usual he gave it his all but he is just not enough. The Menace and JP were absent from the game. Sarr went from hero to zero, JP needs to be taking pens. Robby boy please get your **** together. Early days but boy this was painful.