West Bromwich Albion 0 - Aston Villa 0

Date: Saturday 23rd January 2016 
Competition: Barclays Premier League
WBA:
3.4
(4-4-1-1) Foster 6.4, Dawson 5.4, McAuley 5.8, Olsson 5.4, Evans 5.2, Gardner 3.9 (Berahino, 64 2.6), Yacob 6.7, Fletcher 4.7, McClean 3.8, Sessegnon 5.1 (McManaman, 74 3.7), Rondón 3.4 (Anichebe, 64 3.4)
Unused subs: Myhill, Chester, Pocognoli, Lambert
Manager: Tony Pulis 3.1
Villa:
4.5
Referee: Robert Madley (West Yorkshire) 4.8
Attendance: 26,165   Home Fans 5.8   Away Fans 4.9

oshawabaggie:

No shots on target - Against Aston Villa FFS! This was one of the most inept performances by an Albion side I have seen for years. (Oh yeah, I forgot about Southampton). Thirty million quid for Berahino?? JP is having a laugh. If Rondon, Sess and Gardner were poor, their replacements were woeful. Vic and Berahino should be forced to give their pay to charity. No effort, lousy attitude.

Dawson, Ollie and Gmac did some decent defensive work, but otherwise it was a total disgrace. Oh sorry, Yacob was ok too.

Pulis may achieve his objective of another year without relegation on his resume, but after 180 plus minutes without a single shot on target you have to wonder where he is going with this team. If it wasn't for the core half dozen who put in a defensive shift week after week we'd be screwed. When you are second best to Villa at home, you just have to scratch your head. No ambition by Pulis and little effort by many. Very depressing.

Steve Fereday:

I don't post that often these days, but after watching that shite online this afternoon I thought I would. I also don't attend that often these days as my return trip is 5 hours with normally 90 minutes of tripe in between.

If aliens had landed and gone to the match, they would have thought several things. One, would be Albion, not Villa, should be bottom of the league. Two, would be what are we doing here? Mork and Mindy landed at Arsenal 2 weeks ago and told us this was fun and fantastic entertainment. This was not fun.

Garry Birtles made a very good comment this afternoon when Rondon was substituted. 'Rondon has run quicker to get off the pitch, than he has for all the time he has spent on it'. Hard to disagree with that comment I feel.

Can I toss a few comments out there for folk to shoot me down? There is one week to go of the transfer window. Why have we not already sold Berahino? He is not interested in us, and we are not interested in him, otherwise he would have had much more game time. Sell him and get rid and put whatever we can in the bank. And as he hasn't played much, we don't need to replace him now. Hopefully we will get over the 40 point line (God knows how) using Anichebe, Lambert and Rondon). However, if someone does come in for Rondon next week, let's get rid. I fail to see what Tony Pulis thinks he is good at, in order for him to start over Lambert and Anichebe.

Last year we were looking to bring in Charlie Austin and Matt Phillips and failed. Saints just paid 4 mill for Austin and he scored today on debut at Man United. Did we not have a spare 4 mill in cupboard to have got him here? An absolute steal at 4 mill. Matt Phillips would be good for us. Other than Morrison we have no one who can create in the middle.

I went to Bristol City last Monday and Pocognoli played well considering he has had no game time. He should start. He is a proper full back. We need to buy a similar bloke on the right side. Dawson and Evans are good and can play at centre back. Olsson has been great but now needs to be moved on, and McAuley is now 36 so also should be moved on.

Mclean, McManaman and Sessegnon are good, so 2 of these guys should always start. We showed zero attacking threat today and good wide players will provide it.

Let's use the Berahino money wisely in the summer. This afternoon was dire, but I am optimistic that with a few changes in personnel we could have a very decent team. Still not sure about Tony Pulis tactically. But he has been around long enough to see that as a squad we have very limited talent and therefore trying to best use what we have available.

Another point in the bank for us and for Villa, another game played and 2 points lost, and to be honest we couldn't have complained today had they won as they were the better side.

Mark Koppel:

I was just about to write a match report but there is nothing to report on the match!

Johno:

Awfull!!

Pulis at his worst.

Brendan Clegg:

Totally abysmal. There will be nothing to show on match of the day.

Given we were playing the worst Villa team in 30 years, bottom of the league, very low on quality, I think we can say Pulis got it badly wrong. And here's why in my opinion.

Fletcher was nowhere near fit - who is anyone trying to kid? He couldn't run so sat as deep as Yacob all game - couldn't jump so uncharacteristically lost or missed loads of headers. Couldn't make a tackle all game. Why play him for the sake of it? It was like playing with 10 men.

Evans at left back -utterly wasted when Pocognoli can do a job there. Although Evans is decent on the ball he was constantly on his wrong foot and couldn't support the attack - hence crossed into the stand and McClean being even worse than normal because he had no service.

Olsson was fit so Evans could have played the deeper midfield role with Yacob, allowing us to play Sess through the middle instead of Gardner who is simply miles off being good enough to play this role? Every time Gardner got the ball in space as we looked to break he took too long or gave it away.

McClean - how bad does he have to get before being subbed or dropped? Woeful again today - he could have been moved to left back too. We're a better team without him. But take Sess off instead eh, so our only attacker who at least can put their foot on the ball for 5 minutes and hold it even if he's having a poor game.

McManaman was poor when he came on apart from the one time we used him properly and he gave us a threat on the counter. But let's be fair - hardly any minutes, playing him on the left again when he is totally right footed (WHY???), playing him in front of a right-footed-centre-back-playing-at-left-back so that the supply will be minimal.

Forwards - If you think Rondon is suffering from exhaustion and needs blood tests why start him? It's more likely he's suffering from a chronic lack of confidence from playing most games 40 yards away from anyone else and chasing lumped balls forward against centre-backs better than he's ever faced, mostly outnumbered 3-1 by them. I still think there is a decent player in there but he is living on nothing.

Berahino and Anichebe were crap, but so was the supply still and we had no threat of pace in behind.

We are clueless without Morrison - and yet if you were Peace would you trust Pulis to spend your money on a cover/replacement?

If we sell Saido - would you trust Pulis to spend the money? And is there a replacement out there who will only cost us the wages Saido is on? Could Roofe or Nabi have developed given the opportunities?

If we keep Saido would Pulis ever get the best out of him the way we play?

Looking at it as things are we'll do well to stay up this year. This isn't a performance from nowhere, it's a reflection of how we've been for most of the season and the margins by which we've got results.

  • Foster - 6 Did everything asked of him and is a bolder character than Myhill who has dropped off in recent weeks.
  • Dawson - 6 Did OK although dodgy on the ball as per.
  • McAuley - 7 Another reliable performance that belies his age.
  • Olsson - 6 Did alright and another clean sheet for the old warrior, has given enough service for us to respect it when he does a job for us.
  • Evans - 5 Struggled a bit, unfair to play him at left back again.
  • Yacob - 7 Kept it together for us and was probably the best midfielder on the pitch which tells you all you need to know.
  • Fletcher - 4 Put his body on the line for us by playing but frankly shouldn't have been playing.
  • Sess - 5 Started OK but Villa doubled up on him every time he got the ball and he ran out of ideas on the right, although he was still involved and one of out better players.
  • Gardner - 4 Probably being too generous. Too slow in thought and out of his depth as a number 10.
  • McClean - 4 Offered nothing. Terrible decision making.
  • Rondon - 4 No service but his touch was poor and he won very little.
  • Saido, Anichebe, McManaman - 4 None of them got into it but the timings, positions and tactics didn't help.

Talyllyn Baggie:

I thought I would wait until I saw the Manager's comments on Match of the Day, which was essentially 'Never mind the quality - feel the width'. The dire performance doesn't matter, as long as we have our noses in the SKY money trough at the end of the season. You see, what we spend on our season tickets and what we feel about the attritional performances served up doesn't matter any more - perhaps I will keep that grand in my pocket next season - not that it makes a difference to the club.

Anyway, I wasn't one of those who thought we would beat the Villa by a mile - I don't like the poisonous atmospheres of local derbies that are now the norm, but despite that, the game showed why the Villa are going down, as despite our best efforts to do our traditional 'let them win & give them hope' performance, they couldn't even take advantage of that.

Anyway, upwards & upwards to the mighty Peterborough on Saturday!

Ancient Baggie:

If I hear Pulis talk about players being tired once more I'll spit. Villa have played the same amount in the last few weeks and had far more energy. "Away games" what's the difference? They don't ride a bike or walk to away games do they?

It's as I said after Southampton. The squad is to old and defensive. Pulis is never going to risk trying youth or flair. We know It's going to be old pros and defence first, but to send a team out with NO attacking threat at home to the bottom of the league is unforgivable.

I've followed the Albion for over 40 years so that makes you realistic and I've seen us play worse but as far as value for money goes this was close to being as bad as it's got.