BFTG West Brom

[Kulshaw72RFC]

On the way out and home now it all started so well. Quite impressed with us in the 1st half. I am apoplectic at the 2nd half meltdown.

I am absolutely baffled as to what Clement does at half-time. Every game we capitulate. Walker.... I mean come on. I do like him as a Keeper but that was shoddy. We just fell apart. Yes West Brom will finish top 6 but we need to buck our ideas up.

McNulty is not a championship level player. We missed Bod and Baldock. At least we have a half decent L1 squad for next season I suppose. I really cannot see us staying in this league.

Sigh.

[URZZZZ]

Decent first half, followed by an atrocious second half. Clement's signings so far this year have been questionable, what is the point of Walker and Mcnulty taking away game time from the youth when they contribute nothing. Walker isn't good enough and Mcnulty is a league two player. Why not give Southwood and Loader a chance

Ratings:
Walker 3 - shaky on crosses again, first goal completely misjudges the ball
Gunter 6 - didn't do too much, good ball for Swift in the second half, however you never really feel he adds anything in attack which you need from a WB
Ilori 3 - liability, I think fans overrate him because of the demise of Mcshane. You notice the one game Ilori doesn't play CB, we keep a clean sheet. Looks a more accomplished RB in all honesty
Moore 5 - very good first half, poor second
Blackett 4 - not great, he is comfortable on the ball, almost too comfortable at times
Yiadom 4- drives the ball forward but I'll say it time and time again, he is wasted on the left, it just means we now have two wing backs who don't offer much going forward
Bacuna 7 - MOTM, drove the team forward well even in the second half
Swift 5 - first half very good, second half back to the Swift of the last year, kept giving the ball away
Ezatolahi 5 - dominated the midfield in the first half, no where to be seen in the second
Mcnulty 2 - what's the point?
Meite 3 - he's just not good enough, I don't care that he can run around, you can get a greyhound to do that, he has no technical ability

Bodvarsson, Baldock, Obita, O'Shea and Mannone in for Walker, Ilori/Blackett, Gunter, Meite and Mcnulty would have given us a much greater chance. This team isn't too far away from becoming a decent team, there's just no backbone or fight to it, therefore whenever we concede, we never properly seem to recover. For that reason, I think Clement needs to go, he doesn't seem to have the personality to motivate them. One last thing, I'm quite confused to how we lost because I thought automatically when Aluko doesn't play, we win? It was probably still his fault to some people for sitting on the bench.

[Zip]

Good post. Absolutely fully agreed on Southwood and Loader. They may be young but so what they cannot be worse than what we already have. Why on earth did we give Jaakkola another year? McNulty doesn’t look up to it and why was Meite kept at the club and Novakovich loaned out again?

[Kulshaw72RFC]

On the way out and home now it all started so well. Quite impressed with us in the 1st half. I am apoplectic at the 2nd half meltdown.

I am absolutely baffled as to what Clement does at half-time. Every game we capitulate. Walker.... I mean come on. I do like him as a Keeper but that was shoddy. We just fell apart. Yes West Brom will finish top 6 but we need to buck our ideas up.

McNulty is not a championship level player. We missed Bod and Baldock. At least we have a half decent L1 squad for next season I suppose. I really cannot see us staying in this league.

Sigh.

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

Well, back from IFollow.

First - why, why on earth, are we even thinking about giving a contract to Meite? Christ, he's not even a footballer player. Yes, he runs around a bit and you can't question his application, but he's not a footballer, is he? So we give him a *four* year deal now.... something smells there.

First half - decent. Lots of chance, could have easily been 3-1 up. Saeed, Bacuna, Swift ran the show. Decent effort from McNulty.

Second half - who knows. We just melted away.

Oh well, I'll be back for 'Wall.... that'll be nice.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

Thought McNulty was wasted in first half. He made decent runs just wasnt passed to. To many slow (and many) sideway passes when in good positions.
Sometimes i wish we just stay out on the pitch at HT and just wait. Sick of 2nd half performances.

[Sutekh]

Another second half from hell.

Players are not good enough as a team to stay up.

The goalkeeping position has been in decline since Federici left

There are 4 defenders there worth keeping and one is 37 years old

Gunter is far too inconsistent

Kelly has become a headless chicken under successive managers.

Meite gives his all but has zero end product

But at least that’s better than Aluko.

And so on.

The transfer policy is pathetic, generally signing unnecessary players or signing players from clubs in permanent lose mode and whoever is brought in does not improve the side or results.

Reading’s next 2 games are Millwall at home and Birmingham away, anything less than FOUR points from that I’d say the club might as well pack up now.

And to cap it all the entertainment value has largely been utterly appalling since that reverse at Fulham when Steve Clarke was manager.

Then there’s the continual never ending list of injuries

Aston Villa threw their cabbages at Steve Bruce while Reading are playing theirs in the first team.

Hopefully we might finally get a game worth watching when Reading run out for their FA Cup first round tie next season.

Clement out? If Clement goes what does that say about RG? It’ll have to be a lot worse I think before that happens and, to be honest, even if Coppell, Klopp, Guardiola were then appointed just what could they do with such a poor group of under performing players with no confidence.

Oh well, it has to pick up some time so looking forward to Millwall and seeing a million percent better performance.

[Kulshaw72RFC]

Probably the best post I have seen on here. Agree with everything.

[CavershamRoyal]

Really superb first half performance, and honestly should have put the game to bed before HT. McNulty in particular had a very good chance one-on-one which he should've scored.

But what on earth does Clement say at half time, and what on earth do we practice in training. The marking for all their goals was atrocious, and as soon as the first went it you could tell that the team's heads dropped and there was only one winner from then on.

For such a poor performance second half, I don't think any individual played absolutely terribly. Walker, Gunter, Swift, Meite were all pretty poor but it's hard to pin this defeat on one or two players. It was a collective capitulation, and they should all really be embarrassed.

[Kulshaw72RFC]

We are not going to stay in this league. If we losr to Brum 2 weeks time thats us done for.

[windermereROYAL]

Talk on twitter that Gourlay was getting stick from the away fans, did that happen?

[CavershamRoyal]

Talk on twitter that Gourlay was getting stick from the away fans, did that happen?

Yep, lots of anti-Gourlay chants at the end of the game.

[Henley Royal 1]

Good post. Absolutely fully agreed on Southwood and Loader. They may be young but so what they cannot be worse than what we already have. Why on earth did we give Jaakkola another year? McNulty doesn’t look up to it and why was Meite kept at the club and Novakovich loaned out again?

Meite only has another 3 years 51 weeks left

[Ascotexgunner]

Good post. Absolutely fully agreed on Southwood and Loader. They may be young but so what they cannot be worse than what we already have. Why on earth did we give Jaakkola another year? McNulty doesn’t look up to it and why was Meite kept at the club and Novakovich loaned out again?

Meite only has another 3 years 51 weeks left

I just heard that from Clement before I turned off......unbelievable. Have they learnt nothing?

[Millsy]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The moment we started saying Blackett is a good option is the moment I realised we're screwed.

This is how low we've stooped.

[Sutekh]

Good post. Absolutely fully agreed on Southwood and Loader. They may be young but so what they cannot be worse than what we already have. Why on earth did we give Jaakkola another year? McNulty doesn’t look up to it and why was Meite kept at the club and Novakovich loaned out again?

Meite only has another 3 years 51 weeks left

Happy to give Meite a chance, it’s not his fault that injuries are perhaps giving him more opportunity than the club would quite like at this stage of his development. He is, essentially, a youngster still finding his way in the English game at a very physical level. Good luck to him and I obviously hope he starts to improve enough to be able to show why PSG highly rated him.

Suppose Loader was the same age and had played in place of Meite this season and produced exactly the same performances - would everyone be on his back in the same way?

[Hound]

Seen the highlights - when did we suddnely become so crap at defending corners?

Looks like we played superbly first half. Just shows how much of a mental issue it is with the side. The quality is obviously there, the mentality is awful

[Zip]

Good post. Absolutely fully agreed on Southwood and Loader. They may be young but so what they cannot be worse than what we already have. Why on earth did we give Jaakkola another year? McNulty doesn’t look up to it and why was Meite kept at the club and Novakovich loaned out again?

Meite only has another 3 years 51 weeks left

Happy to give Meite a chance, it’s not his fault that injuries are perhaps giving him more opportunity than the club would quite like at this stage of his development. He is, essentially, a youngster still finding his way in the English game at a very physical level. Good luck to him and I obviously hope he starts to improve enough to be able to show why PSG highly rated him.

Suppose Loader was the same age and had played in place of Meite this season and produced exactly the same performances - would everyone be on his back in the same way?

Meite works hard but he isn’t very good technically and lacks composure. Do you think he was a better bet than Novakovich?

[John Madejski's Wallet]

1st half was one of the most enjoyable 45min of football I've seen in a few seasons.

McNulty was making very clever runs tbf to him. Just not used. Swift and Yiadom were fantastic going forward and Ezataholi was reading the game really well.

2nd half. Early goal and the rest of it can fukk off.

Walker at fault for 3 of the goals imo. Just so slow to move and react to any of the headers.

......if only Swift's shot at 1-1 hadn't gone straight at the keeper.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Not sure how the OP gave Yiadom a 4. He deserves more simply for all the attacking that was coming through him.