After a very slow start we've grown into the game but apart from an excellent chest down and strike from Dykes we've created nothing.
West Brom should have been ahead in the first 10 minutes.
Willock looks a bit nervous in his movement i think. Perhaps scared to accelerate following his hamstring issues. Him and Chair have struggled to link at all.
Armstrong I sense could have a big impact on this game; he gets the crowd going and could help us to stretch a solid looking West Brom.
Last Edit: Nov 5, 2022 15:57:42 GMT by northwesthoop
I was just tagging Sam Field as MotM candidate when he had the head injury. With all that bandaging the award may go to the Invisible Man! Poor start once more from us in wet and wild conditions that favour long balls, but we need to exploit them down our right side. If Willock and Laird can connect better then we will open them up.
After a very slow start we've grown into the game but apart from an excellent chest down and strike from Dykes we've created nothing.
West Brom should have been ahead in the first 10 minutes.
Willock looks a bit nervous in his movement i think. Perhaps scared to accelerate following his hamstring issues. Him and Chair have struggled to link at all.
Armstrong I sense could have a big impact on this game; he gets the crowd going and could help us to stretch a solid looking West Brom.
We certainly need someone or something to give us a bit of spark and Armstrong could be the answer. Would you see Armstrong as a straight swap for Dykes or could you see Beale bringing off Amos and putting him up front with Dykes which could allow more space for Willock and Chair just behind them?
We started poorly and never really got going but credit to WBA because they took their chance. Once we conceded I was amazed that Beale didn't bring Armstrong on until the 90th minute. Strange decision!
We did not test their goalkeeper once in the second half. West Brom looked very comfortable.
It is perhaps cause for concern now how many below par performances we are throwing in. QPR have failed to score in 3 consecutive games for the first time in over 2 years
It is our worst goalscoring run since a 4 game spell without a goal in October 2020.
Willock didn't look fit to me. Why we left him for 90 minutes I don't know because he was never involved and looked uncomfortable.
Why we never made any subs until so late is confusing, especially once we went behind. Armstrong on at 90 minutes?! Pointless.
Chair also very much to blame for their goal. Far, far too casual chesting it back to Field, too short just outside the box and Field committed the foul.
I did not see Sam Field's foul as any more than an impediment to play. It certainly did not warrant a yellow and was just one of those tackles that had to be made but went wrong. That it led to the only goal is galling.... Players we have had to rely upon a lot do end up having bad days, and that probably was the case with Balogun, where he made a good few poor passes; but what was Dickie's excuse for the same? Once they got ahead WBA shut the stable door and started time-wasting. Hardly a team to admire! In comparison, the Rs never stopped chasing the ball-player. What was missing was use of the wings to generate crosses or diagonal passes back. Instead, even when Adomah came on, we carried on trying to go through the massed defence... Whisky bottle safe tonight.
The trouble is that we can't always rely on Willock or Chair to perform and when they don't the weakness of our deeper squad can be seen. I was surprised that Armstrong never got on earlier because he does lift the crowd and the team but only Beale will know the reason we didn't see him until the last minute.
IMO Tim shouldn't have played today but because Johansen was injured I suppose Beale thought he had to include him. Having said that Tim was one of better players today. As I said in an earlier post if you have to have Shodipo and Thomas on the bench it shows how weak a squad we really have. Previously, against Norwich we had to include Niko Hämäläinen on the bench which really highlights the weakness of our squad. Balogun wasn't at his best today and never looked as confident as when playing alongside Dunne or JCS.
Amos picked up a hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Dozzell and must be a doubt for the Huddersfield game but one of our biggest issues continues to be Dykes and his inability to score. Dykes has played 8 games more than Chris Willock (scored 6) but has scored a goal less.
We have been fighting above our weight and it will be interesting to hear what Mick Beale has to say.
The trouble is that we can't always rely on Willock or Chair to perform and when they don't the weakness of our deeper squad can be seen. I was surprised that Armstrong never got on earlier because he does lift the crowd and the team but only Beale will know the reason we didn't see him until the last minute.
IMO Tim shouldn't have played today but because Johansen was injured I suppose Beale thought he had to include him. Having said that Tim was one of better players today. As I said in an earlier post if you have to have Shodipo and Thomas on the bench it shows how weak a squad we really have. Previously, against Norwich we had to include Niko Hämäläinen on the bench which really highlights the weakness of our squad. Balogun wasn't at his best today and never looked as confident as when playing alongside Dunne or JCS.
Amos picked up a hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Dozzell and must be a doubt for the Huddersfield game but one of our biggest issues continues to be Dykes and his inability to score. Dykes has played 8 games more than Chris Willock (scored 6) but has scored a goal less.
We have been fighting above our weight and it will be interesting to hear what Mick Beale has to say.
I said that about Balogun above stoatey, and also totally agree with your other points. I would not risk Amos against the Terriers, so Dozzell gets another shift. However, our biggest worry is up front. Dykes works himself hard, but he is always one striker against two CBs. I wish we had made our substitutions earlier as we would at least have got to see how Adomah was doing these days. He never had time to really get going!
The trouble is that we can't always rely on Willock or Chair to perform and when they don't the weakness of our deeper squad can be seen. I was surprised that Armstrong never got on earlier because he does lift the crowd and the team but only Beale will know the reason we didn't see him until the last minute.
IMO Tim shouldn't have played today but because Johansen was injured I suppose Beale thought he had to include him. Having said that Tim was one of better players today. As I said in an earlier post if you have to have Shodipo and Thomas on the bench it shows how weak a squad we really have. Previously, against Norwich we had to include Niko Hämäläinen on the bench which really highlights the weakness of our squad. Balogun wasn't at his best today and never looked as confident as when playing alongside Dunne or JCS.
Amos picked up a hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Dozzell and must be a doubt for the Huddersfield game but one of our biggest issues continues to be Dykes and his inability to score. Dykes has played 8 games more than Chris Willock (scored 6) but has scored a goal less.
We have been fighting above our weight and it will be interesting to hear what Mick Beale has to say.
I said that about Balogun above stoatey , and also totally agree with your other points. I would not risk Amos against the Terriers, so Dozzell gets another shift. However, our biggest worry is up front. Dykes works himself hard, but he is always one striker against two CBs. I wish we had made our substitutions earlier as we would at least have got to see how Adomah was doing these days. He never had time to really get going!
All being well I'd expect to see JCS and Balogun as the central defenders against Huddersfield.
The loss of Amos having already lost Johansen until after the World Cup is a worry. I thought our central midfield on Saturday really did miss Johansen and the runs he makes forward to support the front players. This season he has got back to the form he showed when he first came in on loan and his 6 assists is the same as Chair. In respect of assists the only central midfielder apart from Johansen to get an assist is Field with 2. All the other assists have come from the wing backs, Paal 3, Laird 2 and Kakay 1.
It was the first timr this season that I thought Beale got his subs wrong and left them all far too late. Needed to get Armstromng on earlier at 0-0 imo to try and get us running in behind them and push them back vcreating space for Willock, Chair and the full backs.
I had a bad feeling about the game as they have some good players and should be around ther playoffs not bottom 3, was a game we could have done with playing a few weeks ago before the change of manager.
I do think that since we went top the relaxed attacking football has changed to a more cautious approach, I think thats a mental issue with the players was the same last season
it was a hard one to take but west brom are in a false position and we were just unlucky our defeat is probably the start of their peak new manager etc bit like villa in the premier league,its one we have to take on the chin we simply didnt have enough firepower or ideas to upset their tidy defence game plan worked perfectly on their part and beale bit naive with his subs and tactics on this one Huddersfield wont fear us tonight and we will have to play well to get anything at all
