CONFIRMED - David Button

[URZZZZ]

Always baffled by the "must be better than" crowd. How often has that been said over the last 10 years only to be completely wrong.

Struggling to think of any frankly. Maybe Bacuna? Drinkwater? Even Puscas was at least an upgrade on Baldock and McNulty. Most of our big flops were always obvious downgrades, like Aluko, or were poor value for money but still better than the alternatives, like Mannone or Rafael.

That being said, his stats for last season were worse than both, and they weren’t good the year before either, so on reflection maybe there isn’t much reason for optimism.

Managers is probably the clearest cut. But happened with players too.

Hendrick, Loum and Fornah were definitely decried as 'must be better' than Rinomhota, Drinkwater and Laurent...

Could be wrong but don’t think it was described as “must be better”; more so “can’t be much worse”. Given Rinomhota, Swift and Laurent’s (although he did seemingly improve) struggles last season and given we accrued 3 more points last season (19 less goals conceded) I don’t think it was too unfair an initial assessment

[royalstevep68]

West Brom fans aren't the brightest. I would rather see him for myself and judge, thanks.

Well West Brom fans were saying swift was rubbish when he joined, erm

[Hound]

Struggling to think of any frankly. Maybe Bacuna? Drinkwater? Even Puscas was at least an upgrade on Baldock and McNulty. Most of our big flops were always obvious downgrades, like Aluko, or were poor value for money but still better than the alternatives, like Mannone or Rafael.

That being said, his stats for last season were worse than both, and they weren’t good the year before either, so on reflection maybe there isn’t much reason for optimism.

Managers is probably the clearest cut. But happened with players too.

Hendrick, Loum and Fornah were definitely decried as 'must be better' than Rinomhota, Drinkwater and Laurent...

Could be wrong but don’t think it was described as “must be better”; more so “can’t be much worse”. Given Rinomhota, Swift and Laurent’s (although he did seemingly improve) struggles last season and given we accrued 3 more points last season (19 less goals conceded) I don’t think it was too unfair an initial assessment

Yep and nobody even bothered with DD

Would say they ended up much the same - pretty useless

[Sutekh]

West Brom fans aren't the brightest. I would rather see him for myself and judge, thanks.

Well West Brom fans were saying swift was rubbish when he joined, erm

And they like Assante-Thomas

[Neiltonoman]

West Brom fan in peace.
Button was a really poor keeper for us. He doesn't inspire confidence in the defence. He seems to me to lack presence and doesn't command his box like you'd expect an experienced keeper to.
With him in goal last season we conceded 18 goals in 13 games, once he was out of the team we conceded 9 in the next 13 games..same defenders just a different keeper.
His shot stopping percentage last season was 51.8% which was the worst of any keeper to play more than 2 games (Luthra for Cardiff had a percentage of 50% but he only played 1 game)
He played in 3 FA cup games for us last season conceding 6 goals in 2 of those games (3 at Chesterfield and 3 at Bristol City).
I hope it works out for him with you as he seems like a nice person he's just not a very good keeper.

Good luck for the rest of the season.

[Neiltonoman]

West Brom fans aren't the brightest. I would rather see him for myself and judge, thanks.

Well West Brom fans were saying swift was rubbish when he joined, erm

And they like Assante-Thomas

No, we like Brandon Thomas - Asante.!! A good player who has made the step up from lg2 to Championship. Scored some cracking goals (Stoke and Bristol City), closes down etc. Obviously he could be better but he's still learning about playing at a higher level.

As for Swift, there's obviously a talented player in there and we see it in flashes but he often goes missing in games. Takes a good penalty though.

[blythspartan]

Well West Brom fans were saying swift was rubbish when he joined, erm

And they like Assante-Thomas

No, we like Brandon Thomas - Asante.!! A good player who has made the step up from lg2 to Championship. Scored some cracking goals (Stoke and Bristol City), closes down etc. Obviously he could be better but he's still learning about playing at a higher level.

As for Swift, there's obviously a talented player in there and we see it in flashes but he often goes missing in games. Takes a good penalty though.

Spot on about Swift.

Good luck for the rest of the season and let’s hope that we can both get rid of our owners sooner rather than later.

[NathStPaul]

He looked all at sea for the Port Vale goal, reacted about an hour too late.

Far too early to write him off/in, deserves a fair crack at it.

[stealthpapes]

He looked all at sea for the Port Vale goal, reacted about an hour too late.

Far too early to write him off/in, deserves a fair crack at it.

The second fumble was pretty ...

Thought he'd taken it, body over ball, oh look, it's squirmed loose.

Did appear to lead a lot of the goalkeeper warmup, which is part of the deal for an experienced #2/#3 keeper.

[Snowflake Royal]

On just thr one showing so far, so way too early to judge, I'd still rather have given Andresson a go and held a more experienced keeper signing in my back pocket for the end of the window. Jury out on Bouzanis.

[Hound]

He did ok. Could do nothing about the goal whatsoever. One of the fumbles was poor but a good save on tbe one that hit the bar

He did look comfortable with it at his feet tbf and at least does seem to suit the style we want to play

[Mid Sussex Royal]

West Brom fan in peace.
Button was a really poor keeper for us. He doesn't inspire confidence in the defence. He seems to me to lack presence and doesn't command his box like you'd expect an experienced keeper to.
With him in goal last season we conceded 18 goals in 13 games, once he was out of the team we conceded 9 in the next 13 games..same defenders just a different keeper.
His shot stopping percentage last season was 51.8% which was the worst of any keeper to play more than 2 games (Luthra for Cardiff had a percentage of 50% but he only played 1 game)
He played in 3 FA cup games for us last season conceding 6 goals in 2 of those games (3 at Chesterfield and 3 at Bristol City).
I hope it works out for him with you as he seems like a nice person he's just not a very good keeper.

Good luck for the rest of the season.

Thanks - 18 goals in 13 games would be a big mark up in the last 2 seasons of 2 goals a game

[Elm Park Kid]

I'm a strong believer in the idea that stability breeds success in football and that you're better off with a 7/10 keeper that has a season under their belt then an unknown who could be 8/10. Goes for every player and management position throughout the club though. I always think that the best bet is to wait for who you have to improve if your only other option is a complete gamble on someone who 'might' be better. Players who know each other will have better instincts when it comes to building up play and knowing where to put balls without looking up. I do think that concept is missed by a lot of us on here who demand 'attacking' football but don't comprehend the time and hard work needed for that to happen. It's like shouting at a boxer to just go out and 'hit them'.

[Neiltonoman]

And they like Assante-Thomas

No, we like Brandon Thomas - Asante.!! A good player who has made the step up from lg2 to Championship. Scored some cracking goals (Stoke and Bristol City), closes down etc. Obviously he could be better but he's still learning about playing at a higher level.

As for Swift, there's obviously a talented player in there and we see it in flashes but he often goes missing in games. Takes a good penalty though.

Spot on about Swift.

Good luck for the rest of the season and let’s hope that we can both get rid of our owners sooner rather than later.

Cheers!
I dread to think where we will be this time next year if we still have our owners. I think that with what's been happening with us, Birmingham as well as yourselves and now Wolves that Chinese ownership of clubs will get a lot more scrutiny.

[Stranded]

Thought Button looked solid last night - only one game but looked more than comfortable claiming high balls etc, hopefully this will be the norm.

[NathStPaul]

Thought Button looked solid last night - only one game but looked more than comfortable claiming high balls etc, hopefully this will be the norm.

Lets see where we are with him in a months time, I have doubts. Doubt we will play a worse team than Cheltenham this season, was an easy nights work for him but it was a game he probably needed just to boost the confidence.

[Snowflake Royal]

Thought he was solid but made a bit of a hash of the high ball near his bar. Not sure he knew where he was and made it look more dangerous than it was.

[Orion1871]

Thought he was solid but made a bit of a hash of the high ball near his bar. Not sure he knew where he was and made it look more dangerous than it was.

As Steve Death apparently used to say "didn't go in, did it?"

[Sutekh]

Thought he was solid but made a bit of a hash of the high ball near his bar. Not sure he knew where he was and made it look more dangerous than it was.

As Steve Death apparently used to say "didn't go in, did it?"

The sort of post match manager/player comment that is so sadly lacking in many an over blown, too serious post match interview these days. In fact resorting to a simple pithy statement of fact might well stump a lot of the stupid post match media comment and questions.

[Hound]

Noticed a few clips of Button on Twitter bigging up Abbey etc to the crowd

Do wonder if Button being a ‘good bloke’ which seems to be a given is a big part of why we wanted him. Maybe Bouzanis not quite so much, esp being best mates with Ince etc