smudgerfox

Same could be said of Maddison and Tielemans. He put in Vardy for Tetes chance, he put in Vardy for the penalty , he scored the penalty, he brought a good save from Sa, from the edge of a box, he made a distracting front post run for Castagne’s winner. Ffs what more do you want? I’m not talking about whiteboard , advanced coaching theory, technical accomplishment - I’m talking about affecting the outcome of a football match. And imagine how much better he might be and have been with a fanbase and manager who embrace his talent rather than chuntering the moment he miscontrols a pass.

Pretty much involved in every meaningful attack - his treatment by BR is an act of self harm on a par with the freezing out of Cags.

Did you have Southampton beating Arsenal Stan?

I’ve seen him play many times thanks. And yes he uses his experience on the field to good effect. But off the field I’m not so sure. I’ve not heard him say anything which would indicate he’s committing himself and motivating the team to commit themselves, to the cause. Comes over more as a wily old professional who knows what needs to be said (if not meant) in public.

yes this is our leader and a model professional according to Brendan https://news.sky.com/story/west-brom-players-probed-over-stolen-taxi-incident-in-spain-11253230

Had us winning against Wolves, Leeds & Everton, lose against Fulham, Liverpool & Newcastle. BUT, we're safe before the West Ham game based on the other results. Looks like a specific expectation to me - based on you getting all the results right - not just ours! I’m sure you’re that good Stan!!

Well if you know all that you wouldn’t produce a fully formed final league table and expect us all to be cheered by it. Look at our run of so-called winnable games so far - Palace a L , Villa h L , Bournemouth h L Who predicted that? As I say the SST pragmatism should yield more points than we would have got under BR but it’s still a high wire act with brittle players in high pressure games.We will spend a fair amount of the next few weeks still in the relegation zone (I see Newcastle is now Monday as well), playing to climb out of it on live TV. That brings its own psychological pressure.

Fatuous really. First of all there’s literally no game we can be relied upon to win..we’ve been “doubled” by Southampton ffs. All these remaining games will be played under the severest pressure and will have their own internal dynamics. Imagine going 1-0 down early on Saturday - pushing for an equaliser and going 2-0 down. Or an injury to Maddison, or a sending off. These high wire games will increasingly be influenced by events at significant games being played elsewhere simultaneously - rivals taking a surprise lead at a game everyone expected them to lose will ratchet the need for us to win. Timing of matches could also be important - our preponderance of Monday fixtures is likely to involve more pressure. We’ll likely be needing to win to get ourselves out of the bottom 3 for a number of weeks. I am heartened by the cheery pragmatism of SST but this is going to be very very difficult..

West Brom fans very underwhelmed by Albrighton - all the league winners shd have had sunset contracts - reducing money in line with their diminishing contribution

What you say may be true but after the farce of the last 18 months or so - it really is time to reappraise what individuals are bringing to the party. If as you say, Stowell can’t be expected to advise and be influential in the decision about replacing Kasper then I really would question his worth. A coach’s main role is to improve the players - but surely he’d intervene to stop the club making a strategic or tactical error of this magnitude….

I did wonder about including Stowell and Sadler and interesting you also include Ward because I would make a similar argument about him. This is what I would say about S and S. When Brendan left, two coaches left with him. Kolo Toure had already left. That’s four coaches gone. Yet we still have two left. And we have a set piece coach who’s name hasn’t been mentioned.,so that’s seven coaches. What in hells name are they all doing? What have they been doing? And if we accept that not one of them has been able to contribute significantly to stopping an 18 month rot - except maybe the set piece guy - then how is their value being evaluated? And why aren’t one or two of them being prepared to step up in an emergency? And that’s before we get to the coaches in the junior sides whose performance is similarly terrible who also ought to be thinking they might be called to coach the first team one day. Someone at the club should be noticing that we have seven coaches devoted to the first team - yet not one of the other six can be relied upon to step up in Brendan’s absence. Ward is similar. He has been the number 2 for how long? 3 seasons? We have umpteen junior keepers. The Polish guy at Hartlepool, the guy we signed from Hartlepool (Brad someone?) , plus Iversen. We have a dedicated goalkeeper coach. Surely if there’s any point in this bank of keepers and a dedicated coach it’s to ensure that we have a reliable succession plan should the number one be injured/ill/transferred. They’ve had plenty of time to plan so it’s utterly unforgivable that the succession was handled so poorly. It was interesting that when S and S were installed, everyone mentioned Stowell’s loyalty and what a great guy he is. No-one said he was a great coach.

Yes I’ve had similar experiences. The prioritising of FA Cup over Champions League and the prioritising of Europa Conference over league position were mistaken if understandable. Yet the fanbase was having nothing to do with the opposite view. They were in any case false binaries. Pursuing one competition does not have to entail abandoning another. The question of Brendan was also presented as a false binary - “are you Brendan in, or Brendan out?” What would have been more useful was a better understanding of Rodgers’ failings - which were fully documented by Liverpool and Celtic fans when he joined, and have now returned to haunt us as well. In all the local media, national media and podcast coverage of Brendan’s tenure here, I have never heard an interview from anyone at these clubs who could have offered valuable insight, even when results were going our way.

It shouldn’t need saying but the club needs to adopt a much more hard-headed business approach rather than that of a charity for chums it has come to resemble. Just a few but sadly not exhaustive list of examples Allowing the appointment of Congerton Allowing the departure of Rennie offering veterans contracts way beyond their useful life (Vardy, Albrighton, Morgan, Evans) offering new or extended contracts to the likes of Hirst and Choudhury Retaining mediocrities like Ward, Sadler and Stowell who simply are not good enough at PL level Signing Vestergaard (mate of Kasper) , Bennett and Bertrand (ex colleagues. Of Brendan) Having a recruitment head on gardening leave in potentially transformative transfer window Failing to register a £30-million new signing on time rendering him unable th play for five months Signing new players then playing them in a different position to the one they were playing when you decided to sign them in the first place Having no succession plan for a manager whose sacking has been inevitable for at least 14 months And failing to secure a Champions League place (twice) by failing to invest in January window when the team only needed a couple of classy reinforcements (see Ryan Bennett) to maintain momentum Sadly I could go on

I guarantee if he keeps us up we’ll get caught in the Solksjaer syndrome - “he’s done so well it would be mad not to give him a chance…

To think the Leicester Till I Die podcast was advocating Pochettino only a few days ago - and they can’t even say it - they call him Potter-Chino …

I think this is a good question. How often in the last 18 months have we produced a 90+ mins performance ? Brendan regularly pointed to periods of matches where we’d been dominant or dangerous but hardly ever, if at all, have we played well for a whole game.

If we carry on playing like that ….

Marsch @ Leeds 60 goals conceded in 37 matches - just what we need!

Sean Dyche - not good enough for us apparently Since taking over at Everton on Jan 30 W4 D3 L3 - 15 points from 30 including three 1-0 wins - that’s the kind of unsophisticated management I’d like to have seen

I agree ..I thought the back 5 played well, NDidi and Mendy were good - until their mistake - we won a lot of 50-50 ball and looked like the team most likely to win until the sending off. I didn’t think KDH was brainless but a bit unlucky - both yellow cards were softer than other tackles by other players on both sides which went unpunished. I’m not saying we were brilliant but there were signs that a simpler and more instinctive approach might improve us a lot. Play like that v Bournemouth and we win …

Undone by the star of Stoke

Which Europa game was it we lost 1-0 at home to the oppositions only attack?- they had one man in the box, we had at least four yet he was given a free header and scored - was it Moscow or Warsaw?

The reason I have been pessimistic for so long is because everyone talks about these “winnable” games against the teams around us - but there is zero evidence that this team and this manager can play and get results under that sort of “must win” pressure. Two fifth place finishes that should have been at least fourth - no show semi finals v Roma and Villa - are proof of that…

Is he ? He’s improved Maddison. No question. Youri is a more complete player than when he arrived. Barnes? He arrived (from loan at West Brom) as a marauding all purpose forward who could score and assist right across the forward line. An England call up seemed a certainty. Now he plays in a twenty yard wide corridor down one side of the pitch, receiving identical passes over and over again and trying to score the exact same goal over and over again. KDH is beginning to look stuck in a similar rut and I can’t see any improvement in JJ (when fit) that you couldn’t put down to age and experience. The squad is full of coaching failures (unexploited, unimproved talent) - Soyuncu, Amartey, Praet, Perez, Soumare, Mendy, Ihenacho, Daka). You could add in the failure to prepare for kaspers departure and to find useful roles for Vardy and Albrighton as a sign of lack of forward thinking. But surely the most telling coaching inadequacies: failure to establish a reliable defence ; failure to defend set pieces (repeatedly); concession of late goals and at other psychologically significant moments; inability to fight back after falling behind; huge injury list; inability to use subs to change game momentum.

Yes and why not have another player playing out of position ? Just as he’s looking good in his favoured position - pure Sunday League ..