Weird game, totally dominated the first half, West Brom couldn't touch us. If Davis finishes a relatively easy chance, it's 2-0 like we deserve and the rest of the game is a coast. He was more involved than usual so it is hard to criticise him but I hate his body language, his sulky arm throwing and the general fatigue to his play from minute 1, really can't warm to him at all, gives the impression he thinks he's far better than he is. Should be leaving with a brace today. Thought Gaspar was fantastic, showed his experience. Morris just by giving 110% stood out, emotion aside still some very naive tackles and positioning moments, think he made Hoedt worse and Hoedt had one eye on protecting him. Porteous I just love, what a character. Here for a while hopefully. Plays some blinding line breaking passes too that are so obvious but we've been so starved of with our previous centre backs, starts a lot of our attacks. So happy with him. Sema what a man! Deserves it. Not sure why Louza was on the bench for so long, game was crying out for his quicker brain I thought, we needed that final pass sooner than Kone would deliver it. Utterly weird run of form, 4 unbeaten, 1 defeat in 7, yet nobody is fully convinced. No idea what to expect next, never boring!
I have been starving to see some kind of game plan from Bilic. Yesterday I spotted some kind of idea how to play. I like the idea that full-backs are put forward and they keep the with. To help this happen Choudhury moved to play as a third defender to help with passing. Especially Kone was moving between the lines and their players to be able to receive the short passes. That worked especially in the first half. Pedro is also effective in that role as he can turn players and free himself. If that wasn`t possible they tried to play longer passes to strech Albions defence and give more room in the midfield to help the forthcoming moves. Long passes were also used to wide areas. There seems to be the basics ready to help find the room in the attacking third of the pitch. I was watching Leicester against Manu and their idea or strenght was to play it to Iheanacho who was rather good to hold it or continue it to own players. And the difference to us was that they often had three or four players moving forward with speed. That is something we have to learn because we supposedly have the players for that kind of system.
I sort of agree Burnsy but I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that Chalobah's ship has finally sailed. Undoubtedly talented, he's had a strange stop/start career but fortunately for us most of his 'start' has been with us and far less 'stop' than all other teams he's played for. The breathtaking Leicester goal under Zola, his early form under Marco S including bossing the match away at Southampton in the Premiership and the captain's performance and goal away at Cardiff, show (even then post knee injury) that he could have been a contender. He was one of those Chelsea youngsters that everyone wanted to loan and the Zola factor gave us the edge. A series of underwhelming loans elsewhere didn't provide a clue as he picked up 40 England U21 caps (yes true!) and as we all remember he picked up a full England cap too when he was still hopping around on one working knee. Has only scored 12 club career goals (8 for us!). Like many on here I was disappointed we didn't keep him as we went back to the Prem last year. Marco was blinded and rekindled his love affair with Nat at Fulham to no effect. Often their 89th minute sub and sent off early when he did start, IIRC, this is the sign of someone whose brain knows he had can do it at the highest level but whose knees won't oblige. Last night two early fouls and the wonky passes you've mentioned demonstrated why he's a long way off getting his mojo back. Of course I was happy to see him out of sorts last night but after our win I had a pang of sadness at what's happened to him as he recycles failed loan after failed loan. He's suffering the curse of the overpaid Chelsea young talent that we see regularly. Conor Gallagher might just be the new Nat, with England caps and some flashy loan moments not cementing him a place at Stamford Bridge with all the money being splashed on dubious 'world stars'. Just a thought.
In regards to getting wrong offside decisions last night, it should also be noted that Gaspar was also just offside for our first goal - so in that regard the linesman were equally bad for both sides
That is the first time I have seen Assombalonga since he returned, the size of him is obscene! The problem when players bulk up like that is that they lose mobility. I would rather have Bayo as an impact sub for all his faults. Happy to have won and thought Morris had a good game. Despite his limitations he never hides in a game and tries to get forward to support the attack. I am not a massive fan of Gaspar but think he has played well since returning to right back. Kone, a couple of great surging runs through the middle only to panic a bit at the end and pick the wrong pass. Needs to work on his shooting. Porteous is a great old school centre half, exactly what we needed. Whatever division we are playing in next season, we need a new goalkeeper. Bachman spreads panic through his defence irrespective of who the players are. Hopefully we can get a 30+ goalie who is currently out of the first team picture in the mold of Gomes or Almunia.
In fairness, whatever happens, Conor Gallagher has already made 30 more Premier League appearances than Chalobah, and in a far, far more impactful way when it comes to both minutes and 'points' - it may be 85 to 55 games-wise, but it's 6,227 mins for Gallagher to Chalobah's 1,873, and 11 goals/6 assists to Chalobah's 0 goals/2 assists. I have my own doubts about Gallagher's eventual ability to contribute regularly for a top/Champions League level team, but he's frankly already clearly surpassed Chalobah and he's 5 years younger. It also seems fairly certain, barring a Dele Alli-level catastrophic breakdown, that he'll spend his career playing in top flights and earning significant transfer fees, at the least. I don't think there's really a genuine comparison between the two.
Tbf with the injuries we've had up til now I'm not surprised Bilic has failed to finalise a proper MO to our play or formation. (I still have zero clue as to what formation best suits us). Personally I think it's too early for JP as captain, he's young and fiery and clearly feels he's got to tough it up. I'd give it to Portious (but I guess he's not been here long enough?) Captain needs to be a very steady player but loud and respected.... Erm so...?
To be honest we controlled the game up until Hoooot over sold himself, for the 2nd time, on the half way line. They had a decent chance, scored from the resulting corner and gave them momentum. Their 2nd came from our own horrendous error. Apart from that we were in total control
I know stats don't tell the full story but; Shots Home18 Away18 Shots on Target Home7 Away4 Corners Home6 Away6
I thought Morris was excellent yesterday. He’s certainly developing game by game and growing in confidence. Dare I say it, he looked a lot quicker too?? A couple of nice direct sprints into space, overlapping and working well with Pedro. A much better crosser of the ball than Kamara too.. The things i’d do to see us finally develop one of our youngsters into a long term first team player.
I think we controlled the first half and if there is any criticism to be had its that we should have finished the game in the first half. The second half was a bit more evenly matched but despite this we should have been out of sight with the chances we created. Quite a few of West Brom's shots at goal were about 62 yards over the bar in fairness.
He's a Southampton youngster. Played for them from U10s until release as a 19 year old. We signed him on a free as an adult.
Ah right, I forgot about that! Explains why he’s being played then. Our managers wouldn’t touch our academy with a barge pole, silly me. Excluding Adeyamo of course..
I'm not sure there is much between the two teams currently although thought we were marginally the better side last night. West Brom probably need a very good run and soon though if they are to make the play offs
I thought West Brom really were rubbish. Their midfield, especially in the first half was entirely non-existent and we bypassed it with a bit of pace or a simple pass. Their chances generally came from exploiting Morris' lack of pace/ positioning and overloading our left, or from gifts by us. Vs a top side, WBA shouldn't have even been in the game at HT.
Yes, that's correct. Well done for seeing through my cunning plan. You're far too smart for this forum. But in my defence, the corner flag does look like John Swift.
Three out of four are good. It's the 'do what you want' bit I don't like. In fact I suspect he doesn't say it - but they do it anyhow.
I think he is actually a very good footballer, but with one obvious drawback - his lack of top speed. He is also only at the very beginning of his first team career, so allowances should be made.
Thought they set up really negatively to try and stop us playing through the centre and limit Pedro's influence. It worked as we were forced into the backwards/sideways shuffle until Super Mario decided to take matters into his own hands and inject a bit of urgency into the attack that led to the first goal. When they went at us second half, they caused us a lot of problems and are probably ruing their overly defensive start to the game.
True although we looked like scoring everytime we went forward in the second half as their defending was woeful.
