Big stage fright?

[Guinness Boy]

Wrote a match report this morning (here) and one of the themes is something that occurred to me as I was writing it - our failure this season at grounds that are Premier League in size of stage. I'm talking St James's Park, Elland Road and Villa Park this season and Hillsborough and Middlesboro last season. I'm not having this "bottling" nonsense per se - we went up in the middle of April after all - but it's more a concern for next season. Which of our current players can you genuinely see give a nerve-free performance at the likes of Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge or even in the derby game against them up the road?

Yesterday was a perfect "big match" atmosphere, 32,000 with us being very noisy in a ground with a great old school feel, and I felt one or two of our players were totally overawed. Pocognoli for one - you could suddenly see why he'd been loaned out. Murphy underwhelmed me as did Stephens. Not so worried about Baldock as he was just back from injury but it was certainly far from his best game, even though he won us the penalty. Even Knockaert veered between nervous and over adrenalised, as he had at Boro last season, though both teams dealt with him well.

On the other hand Sidwell - bags of Premier League experience - rose to the occasion. So did Tomori who has obviously seen the big stage with Chelsea even if he's not played on it regularly, Dunk seems to relish games like that and it seemed less of an issue for him.

I think my point is that we will have 19 big away games next season where temperament will count for an awful lot. I would expect some calm heads with Premier League experience to come in, even if it costs.

EDIT - the point obviously goes to away games. We cope with our own atmosphere fine because the players seem very comfortable at the Amex.

 

[theboybilly]

I think losing Bruno was crucial. We could have packed that midfield with Hemed as an outlet to see the game out. I was hoping Kayal would have come on. Grealish is something else when he is on his game and I feared the worst when he came on

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Have to agree somewhat

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

 

[Papa Lazarou]

What really bothered me, and it's probably related, was our complete surrendering of territory and control to 10 men. After we scored, we had a couple of great chances to put the game to bed, but the last 10 minutes, Villa (with nothing particular to play for) looked like the team with the extra man. Our midfield were suddenly over-run and we had no outlet. Scary.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Unfortunately you may have a point. I haven't really expected much from many of the big away games the last couple of years which is odd given the consistency of this team in most of the other games. The expansive football of home games seems to disappear. I am loathe to be too critical of just about the best Albion side I have ever seen but it's clear we need big games players. Another factor may be that our dominant style is based on wingers so when these are not producing then there is added pressure on the team as we have less of the ball.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Unfortunately you may have a point. I haven't really expected much from many of the big away games the last couple of years which is odd given the consistency of this team in most of the other games. The expansive football of home games seems to disappear. I am loathe to be too critical of just about the best Albion side I have ever seen but it's clear we need big games players. Another factor may be that our dominant style is based on wingers so when these are not producing then there is added pressure on the team as we have less of the ball.

Away from home we can get ourselves in a cycle of losing possession easily, having no outlet to move forward, and getting pressed into rushed pass, and repeat.

 

[SeagullDubai]

What really bothered me, and it's probably related, was our complete surrendering of territory and control to 10 men. After we scored, we had a couple of great chances to put the game to bed, but the last 10 minutes, Villa (with nothing particular to play for) looked like the team with the extra man. Our midfield were suddenly over-run and we had no outlet. Scary.

I still cannot figure why we dont run the clock down with a few minutes to go. Our tactics seem to be that we hoof it back to the opposition and challenge them to score. Which they did.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Leeds is hardly a big stage and we've beaten them 6 times in the last 8 games against them.

We've never won at Villa Park, and they've only lost three games all season, at home. If we had played them earlier in the season, we would've considered a draw a good result. Suppose the fixture list had been different with the Villa game three weeks ago, and the Wigan game, yesterday, we'd have been celebrating coming second today.

 

[neilbard]

Wrote a match report this morning (here) and one of the themes is something that occurred to me as I was writing it - our failure this season at grounds that are Premier League in size of stage. I'm talking St James's Park, Elland Road and Villa Park this season and Hillsborough and Middlesboro last season. I'm not having this "bottling" nonsense per se - we went up in the middle of April after all - but it's more a concern for next season. Which of our current players can you genuinely see give a nerve-free performance at the likes of Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge or even in the derby game against them up the road?

Yesterday was a perfect "big match" atmosphere, 32,000 with us being very noisy in a ground with a great old school feel, and I felt one or two of our players were totally overawed. Pocognoli for one - you could suddenly see why he'd been loaned out. Murphy underwhelmed me as did Stephens. Not so worried about Baldock as he was just back from injury but it was certainly far from his best game, even though he won us the penalty. Even Knockaert veered between nervous and over adrenalised, as he had at Boro last season, though both teams dealt with him well.

On the other hand Sidwell - bags of Premier League experience - rose to the occasion. So did Tomori who has obviously seen the big stage with Chelsea even if he's not played on it regularly, Dunk seems to relish games like that and it seemed less of an issue for him.

I think my point is that we will have 19 big away games next season where temperament will count for an awful lot. I would expect some calm heads with Premier League experience to come in, even if it costs.

EDIT - the point obviously goes to away games. We cope with our own atmosphere fine because the players seem very comfortable at the Amex.

Really, we didn't cope with the big match atmosphere last week at the Amex against Bristol City it was a lack lustre and jaded performance the title was won and lost for me then not yesterday at Villa Park.

 

[LamieRobertson]

What really bothered me, and it's probably related, was our complete surrendering of territory and control to 10 men. After we scored, we had a couple of great chances to put the game to bed, but the last 10 minutes, Villa (with nothing particular to play for) looked like the team with the extra man. Our midfield were suddenly over-run and we had no outlet. Scary.

Those last ten mins we were certainly on the back foot and we looked like the team with ten men ...yesterday someone unfairly criticised CH for negative tactics and yet it seemed just the time to take off either GM or SB and play three in the centre..but then I guess hindsight is a wonderful thing

 

[Guinness Boy]

Really, we didn't cope with the big match atmosphere last week at the Amex against Bristol City it was a lack lustre and jaded performance the title was won and lost for me then not yesterday at Villa Park.

Totally agree Bristol City was where we lost the title. However we didn't fluff Wigan and took Reading to bits in front of the cameras with them actually turning up with more than a couple of pensioners for a change. Leeds dispatched at home, Sheffield Wednesday dispatched at home this season and the best 30 mins we've played at the Amex in the home playoff leg.

I think our home form will keep us up next season. Enough of the nucleus will stay and they seem to love playing at home, 3 defeats at home all season. I really worry we will be overawed away.

Also good points from others about sitting back when they only had 10 men yesterday. It was inexplicable.

 

[bravohotelalpha]

Thinking about big important matches & imposing premier league pitches do we need to employ a sports psychologist - assuming we don't already - just a thought...

 

[Lord Bracknell]

It can happen. One game that I recall seeing when a team was clearly challenged by having to play in a superior, but unfamiliar, stadium than what they were used to was when Chelsea, recently crowned as Champions of Europe, lost convincingly to the Albion at the Amex. And they weren't playing with a team of reserves and bench-warmers.

 

[neilbard]

Totally agree Bristol City was where we lost the title. However we didn't fluff Wigan and took Reading to bits in front of the cameras with them actually turning up with more than a couple of pensioners for a change. Leeds dispatched at home, Sheffield Wednesday dispatched at home this season and the best 30 mins we've played at the Amex in the home playoff leg.

I think our home form will keep us up next season. Enough of the nucleus will stay and they seem to love playing at home, 3 defeats at home all season. I really worry we will be overawed away.

Also good points from others about sitting back when they only had 10 men yesterday. It was inexplicable.

I think you are right about next season, away from home we will struggle against the so called big teams.

Our ball retention yesterday against 10 men Villa was a little poor more so after we had scored.

In hindsight we were probably lucky to get away with a 1-1 draw.

 

[chaileyjem]

Did alright away at Wolves, QPR, Fulham, Birmingham, Blackburn, Wigan this season all in the Prem relatively recently and put things right at Hillsborough..
Wolves and QPR in particular were big big away games where we were under a lot of promotion pressure to deliver.

And did.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Those last ten mins we were certainly on the back foot and we looked like the team with ten men ...yesterday someone unfairly criticised CH for negative tactics and yet it seemed just the time to take off either GM or SB and play three in the centre..but then I guess hindsight is a wonderful thing

Quite often a team with only 10 men will up their game to compensate. We've even lost to a 9 man team in the past.

 

[chaileyjem]

In hindsight we were probably lucky to get away with a 1-1 draw.

In hindsight they were bloody lucky to get away with a 1-1 draw given the 2nd half.

 

[chaileyjem]

Quite often a team with only 10 men will up their game to compensate. We've even lost to a 9 man team in the past.

Probably our best performance (for half an hour at least) this season was with 10 men.
CH "negative" tactics there were rewarded with a winner in the last 5 minutes. .

 

[LamieRobertson]

Quite often a team with only 10 men will up their game to compensate. We've even lost to a 9 man team in the past.

Remember well..Walsall

 

[The Optimist]

The difference between yesterday and next season is that yesterday the pressure was on us to win, next season away at the top 6 we won't be expecting anything so no pressure.