West Brom match thread

[alunevans]

I do think our central midfielders are too deep, coming back to take the ball off the centre backs and then attempting to play it when there's then hardly anyone in front of them.

I'd rather the ball be carried a bit by the centre halves so that the pass reaches the central midfielder much higher up the pitch.

[BrianF80]

I do think our central midfielders are too deep, coming back to take the ball off the centre backs and then attempting to play it when there's then hardly anyone in front of them.

I'd rather the ball be carried a bit by the centre halves so that the pass reaches the central midfielder much higher up the pitch.

Hopefully when Agger is freed up from LB duties we'll try more of that. I doubt it will make much difference though because I think deep and long is the point.

[DannyMan2006]

I dont get why we're the total opposite then. They do not have better players than us.

Actually, at this moment in time they do............

Poulsen is woefully short of match sharpness so his passing has been below his usual level. Lucas is just Lucas and it's no suprise he was nearly sold.

Fulham had Danny Murphy who is a wonderful little passer these days and is a decent little playmaker, hopefully the norm for us will be Gerrard and/or Meireles in there and we'll also have someone in there who can play intelligent passes - because Lucas and Poulsen clearly can not.

I have to be honest here, I do not think Roy is all too confident in some of the players we have and think we'll have a big upheaval in January as well if we get some new owners in prior to then.

Will give Roy six months to scout for Liverpool class players too.

[little dave hedgehog]

just looking at those graphics again and noticing that in the first half, nearly every ball gerrard played was from left to right. wonder if that was because jovanovic was having a stinker or because that's just where everyone was. horribly stilted and lop-sided match from us. you can see between the two graphics that a lot mor balls went out to the left wing in the second half. could be jovanovic, or i've seen other stats that suggested we kept our shape better in the second half, and looked more 4-2-3-1ish.

also, i saw quite a few sideways passes and some back passing from our central players, but the amount of back passes from our "wingers" is just staggering.

[DannyMan2006]

just looking at those graphics again and noticing that in the first half, nearly every ball gerrard played was from left to right. wonder if that was because jovanovic was having a stinker or because that's just where everyone was. horribly stilted and lop-sided match from us. you can see between the two graphics that a lot mor balls went out to the left wing in the second half. could be jovanovic, or i've seen other stats that suggested we kept our shape better in the second half, and looked more 4-2-3-1ish.

also, i saw quite a few sideways passes and some back passing from our central players, but the amount of back passes from our "wingers" is just staggering.

It's because our best attacking outlet is Glen Johnson at RB. Konchsky coming in at LB will help balance it out - he's nowhere near the level of Johnson going forward but he knows how to play the role and often it's just about being a passing option in the right place.

[little dave hedgehog]

so how do you feel about lucas being sucked way over to the right, and poulsen sometimes being even further over, tucked in behind kuyt when we were attacking?

[little dave hedgehog]

It's because our best attacking outlet is Glen Johnson at RB. Konchsky coming in at LB will help balance it out - he's nowhere near the level of Johnson going forward but he knows how to play the role and often it's just about being a passing option in the right place.

we really are unbalaced. our left wing has been poor. do you reckon raul can help sort it out with better vision to pick out players on the left, or do we just need a left winger?

[DannyMan2006]

we really are unbalaced. our left wing has been poor. do you reckon raul can help sort it out with better vision to pick out players on the left, or do we just need a left winger?

I think we need a LB to help balance out the left and provide the overlaps if Jova or whoever else comes inside.

Right side is Johnson and Kuyt and that is set in stone. Left side had been new boy in Jova and a stand by LB in Agger. And then in Turkey it was Kelly and Aurelio. It's a disaster atm.

Give it time for Roy to sort it.

[BrianF80]

we really are unbalaced. our left wing has been poor. do you reckon raul can help sort it out with better vision to pick out players on the left, or do we just need a left winger?

Probably irrelevant, but I downloaded some torrents of porto games and in one they played a 442 with Mierles on the left!