|
Burnley 2 - West Bromwich Albion 2
oshawabaggie:Where do you start? If it wasn't for Burnley's inability to defend corners we would have suffered the defeat that performance deserved. The words of West Bromwich native, Robert Plant's, 'Dazed and Confused' came to mind as the first half shambles unwound. How the f@@@ can you come out against a team like Burnley and give them total freedom of the pitch up to your area? There was no combat in midfield and it was only a matter of time before they scored. What was Pulis thinking?? It wasn't even as if we defended stoutly around our on area. There were holes all over the place. As others have mentioned before on this site, what the hell has Pocognoli, or Gamboa for that matter, done to not even get on the bench. Surely natural fullbacks are better than the options Pulis has come up with so far. Ridgewell is starting to look like a world beater in comparison. Perhaps the biggest disappointment was the lack of compete from many players and signs that some might already be starting to tune Pulis out. If this is what we can expect for the rest of the season, we are in deep trouble. Mark Koppel:Our problems at full back, which have been going on for a number of seasons now, continue. This week at left back rather than right back. That area looked better without Wisdom. Paradoxically the defence looked better overall when Pulis reorganised it with Brunt at left wing back in the second half. To be fair to Pulis he knows this is a problem area for us thus why he dropped Wisdom and tried to buy a full back in the window. If we do manage to stay up, which is not a certainty, I'm confident already that Pulis knows exactly what players in what areas need to be recruited. Player ratings today:
Subs:
Bobby Hope:Well let me start with the positive - we came back from two down. That's it! What a load of rubbish. The worst display of football I have seen in a very long time. No control of the ball, so many misplaced passes, hoof ball, bad defending, no shape - a terrible performance. I can't honestly pick anyone out as having a good game! What Baird was doing I have no idea, Brunt didn't help. How TP can leave out Morrison, Gardner, Poco and I would even welcome Wisdom back!!! No one can tell me that Dorrans would not have performed better than anyone in midfield today. I'm just astonished to be quite frank. It was that bad. And I'm surprised we didn't get anyone sent off and McAuley got away with a hand ball penalty. No one put their foot on the ball and I cannot remember ONE yes even ONE good move. Oh one last positive - they cannot ever play that badly again... can they???? Paul Gainham:Let’s face it, we have been playing poor football now ever since we lost 3-1 away against Swansea early into Clarke’s first season. Yes the occasional high spot but on the whole it’s been dross. So witnessing what was possibly the worst 1H of football in the time since that defeat tells you that Pulis has still got his work cut out. We were utterly abject, no tempo, no discernable pattern of play and players out of position. Going 2-0 down in that half came as no surprise, Burnley also hit the bar and had a couple of other dangerous opportunities. To be honest if we had gone in 4-0 down we could not have complained. Our defence were utterly clueless. Both goals came from comical defending and clearly Pulis has to get it into his head that neither Baird, Lescott or Dawson are full backs. Pocognoli is and god forbid even Wisdom is better than Dawson in that position. My main concern about the 1H was how ‘un-Pulis’ we looked – there was no game plan, I could not decipher what he had set us up to do and I can only believe by the apoplectic rage Pulis was in for most of the half, the players simply did not listen to him. Dyche quickly figured out we had a right back who wasn’t and a defence who can’t play football so he simply got Ings, Barnes and Boyd to push a high line and wait for us to give them the ball back which we duly obliged with. Yet out of the abyss we clawed back a crucial goal just on HT. Second half two things happened. They took their foot off the gas a little to begin with and we played with much greater tempo and pushed a much higher line. Gone was the big 1H sit back. Key to this was taking Baird off and pushing Brunt back to LB and bringing Ideye on. I am going to say something now that may alarm people. Ideye actually looked like a footballer! Shock, horror. He scored a really well taken goal and in fairness he hassled their defence as much as he could, if only Berahino had the same work ethic. In the end we could have won it, Mee stopping a Berahino shot on the line – have not seen yet whether it hit his chest or arm but anyway we missed that opportunity. We are paying the price here for the last 2-3 years of crap, an utterly p*** poor scouting set up and an inability to act quickly in getting rid of poor coaches like Irvine. Oh and for those of you criticizing Pulis, under Irivine we WOULD have lost this game probably 3 or 4-0. Today was not pretty at all but the grit to pull back when under the cosh was. Lesson learned from this game? The season is going to the wire again. With what we have, Pulis will be really hard pushed, particularly with the run-in we have. He was clearly bitterly disappointed with our transfer dealings and I still believe he could walk before the season is over. On balance, unfortunately, relegation is more likely than survival. Player Marks
Subs
Brendan Clegg:Having read the other posts so far it seems that everyone is pretty much in agreement apart from minor bits and pieces. It really was as bad as everyone says. Some points I'd like to make and most of them revolve around Pulis who I maintain is overplaying how bad we are and the squad he inherited is, is guilty of awful pig-headed decisions that are making us weaker and as other have pointed out whose tactics are questionable and not seemingly aligned to the players he selects. Berahino has to start for us the same reason that Ings has to start for Burnley in similar circumstances. Unfortunately we are not good enough to make any points with him. Pocognoli is better than any other left back we have and than we had last year. If you are not going to play him why is he even on the bench? Dawson is not good enough at centre back or right back. At right back you have to be comfortable on the ball. He isn't at all. Wisdom is inconsistent but I think has real promise even playing out of position. He genuinely has had some great games for us this year as well as some stinkers. He keeps going no matter what too. I maintain our full backs being wrong footed and/or out of position is why we are so crap at breaking and why Sess and McManaman cannot get into games for any period. The service to them is awful. They can only go backwards, inside or hoof it. Our defenders are under instruction to launch it. Our midfielders run up the pitch as soon as anyone behind them gets the ball and Fletcher confirmed this in his post match interview. Fletcher over Morrison weakens us. Morrison is our only centre midfielder with genuine pace who can carry the ball up the pitch. How we missed him in the middle today. I have great respect for Fletcher coming back from what he's suffered and with a run of games he might get better but he was miles off it today - and what does referencing what a great pro he is, how he trains and what his character is like serve? Don't tell me Morrison, Gardner or Dorrans are any different? Ability and effectiveness are what matter. Dorrans ran the game when we beat them 4-0 at our place. Mulumbu is coming back - hopefully Pulis is a fan and finds a place for him alongside/instead of Yacob. It's all well and good Pulis saying we started slowly like against Spurs. In both games our starting lineup, formation and tactics were poor. Take some responsibility for your own decisions. We looked leggy today because a back four of Baird, Lescott, Dawson and McAuley with Brunt, Fletcher and Yacob in front of them and big Vic up front IS leggy. A centipede doing the can-can couldn't be more leggy. Good grief. I was firmly in the Irvine must go camp but we have been worse. And people saying Irvine would have lost this? On what basis? We hammered Burnley 4-0 under Irvine by dominating possession and playing to our strengths. We beat Spurs 1-0 away under Irvine with a 5 man midfield to frustrate them and nicking a goal. Although we beat Hull I think Irvine's Albion would have too. The only game I think Pulis got something where Irvine wouldn't have was Everton and even then you never know. We were in trouble under Irvine but we were not a million miles away. He'd almost found his best team and a penalty at Hull going in, basic defending against QPR having been 2 goals up and the draw at West Ham proves this. Instead of tightening us up Pulis has completely changed the way we play and the starting 11 every game. The point I am making is he should not be immune to criticism or absolved of any blame. If we play like this with the same fullbacks againt Swansea we'll get comfortably beaten by them - again.
AllenKevanHogg:Team selection must have many influences, not least what may been suggested to encourage an incoming player. Unless a player is blatantly not trying, we must assume he IS trying his best. Wisdom for example. A youngster out on loan to learn but actually a regular first choice until now, ahead of a World Cup player. For what it's worth my armchair selection to get us out of range of the drop would now be: Foster; Gamboa (if still there?? Wisdom to come on if not working or Dawson if back to the wall), MacAuley, Lescott, (Dawson bench), Pocognoli (Brunt bench or reshuffle with Dawson/Wisdom); McManaman, Morrison a must, Gardner (Fletcher bench until up to speed), Mulumbu (Yacob bench); Ideye covering a lot of ground bless 'im, Berahino/Sessegnon swapping or Fletcher AND Gardner in midfield. I would only let Dorrans go to support a fine player in his quest for first team football. In the right set-up, he is very good to have around. This way Albion might attack and link constructively (minimum hoofing) from the back. Goals from Ideye, Berahino/Sessegnon, Morrison, McManaman, Gardner/Fletcher/Dorrans. Attack is a good form of defense. But have who we have. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All text, pictures and graphics are copyright of BOING unless otherwise stated For details regarding your personal information, please read our Privacy Policy |