[Albion] Do we have a £170m gap in our midfield?

[Sheebo]

Every game and every opponent is different. Everton at home last season was completely different to Arsenal away with probably the same midfield. Had we played Villa or Newcastle today I'm sure we would have performed differently. We will be fine, we already have quality midfielders who may take a little time to truly gel but I thought we looked good today and chances are there may be more incoming anyway. Enjoy the ride.

Agreed but I think we need to sign another defensively minded midfielder. I think RDZ does too. We could’ve potentially been punished today for the slow start. Much better after we scored ironically.

 

[Stat Brother]

Agreed but I think we need to sign another defensively minded midfielder. I think RDZ does too. We could’ve potentially been punished today for the slow start. Much better after we scored ironically.

Something that should have happened after 5, 7, 18 or 21 minutes.

 

[Sheebo]

Something that should have happened after 5, 7, 18 or 21 minutes.

Sorry my brain power after a day of beers ain’t anywhere near understanding you Stat - pls explain..?

 

[Munkfish]

On a positive note which not many people if anyone would have seen was Pedros song being cemented in the north stand after the game.

O’gradys song but a lovely sing song post match.

 

[Stat Brother]

Sorry my brain power after a day of beers ain’t anywhere near understanding you Stat - pls explain..?

Just continuing your final statement.


To put meat on those bones.
'if we hadn't missed so many open goals, we probably wouldn't be talking about the ineffective midfield'.

 

[Silverhatch]

Yes. Massive hole. We know it, RDZ knows it and the club know it.

 

[crabface]

Yes, after watching that today the midfield is no where near up to scratch compared to last season and people seriously think we could get top 4

 

[WATFORD zero]

Pretty much exactly that. Watching the Villa-Newcastle game and we would have been torn to pieces by them.
Hopefully we get some extra players in there before the window shuts. Or, we will have to not get annoyed with a mid-table finish as the younger players develop.

Oh My God, surely not that disastrous !

Mid table and not getting out of the Europa group stage ? TB OUT

(And I don't think anyone is suggesting another DM wouldn't be nice)

 

[Sheebo]

Just continuing your final statement.


To put meat on those bones.
'if we hadn't missed so many open goals, we probably wouldn't be talking about the ineffective midfield'.

Yes but I think many notice there is a gap there. The opposition were pretty poor. On another day against another team like Brentford or Villa we’d have lost today imo. Not a criticism - we didn’t know for sure Moises would go. It’s good to highlight potential issues even when we win so big..! RDZ mentality.

 

[nsclurker]

Based on last Sunday and today, yes, but let's give a few weeks to gel. I was hoping Milner would start centre-mid, to give us some bite and break up play. Maybe next week.

 

[Eric the meek]

Luton tried to pack the midfield, and it didn't work, as we still found gaps, especially down the left with Estupinan and Mitoma.

But I agree with the consensus. We need an enforcer, a leader in midfield, now more than ever. Newcastle were very impressive today. As good as Gilmour is, I fear he may be knocked off the ball too easily against more physical opposition.

 

[Napper]

Had similar performances last season

3 points main thing

 

[Pavilionaire]

I think we will miss Caicedo more than MacAllister and it is minimising the loss of Moises that we need to focus on.

Dahoud and Gross speak the same language, I think they will work it out between them but it is that physicality and ability to come out of the challenge with the ball that was lacking today..

 

[A1X]

I think we looked rusty, but that’s not exactly a surprise

 

[Washie]

It was our defence that was our weakness today I felt our midfield were rusty but fine. Dunk was poor today and Van Hecke needs more experience. Gilmour, Gross and Dahoud is actually quite exciting

 

[nwgull]

Don’t want to piss on everyone’s chips but that was a bang average performance from last season. Without doubt it looked like a team who haven’t played together but for me we seem to have a huge gap in midfield.

No zippy oh my god moments in the midfield. Counter attacks seemed slow. Little worried about better opposition ahead.

But 4-1 didn’t get out of first gear maybe I need to cheer the f*** up.

Views?

Nah, you’re right. We were nowhere near as slick in attack today as we were last season and made a load of mistakes that Luton just weren’t good enough to capitalise on.

Despite all our fears of it being the worst time to play a newly promoted team, it was actually quite useful to be able to be well below par and still win comfortably. We’ll definitely play better as the season goes on and new players bed in.

 

[Zeus]

Thought the Dahoud Gross pivot was too slow and Mo in particular didn’t show for the ball anywhere near the same way Billy did. In fact thought Billy changed the game second half. We will almost certainly bring in a CDM destroyer before the window slams shut.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I don't think we miss macallister. Pedro is as good.

Caicedo of course we miss. In particular, his ability to cover the ground amd make impossible looking tackles from nowhere.

But there are hardly any players who can do what caicedo does, so only buy if we xan add something different to the very good options we have already.

I also think dahoud will continue to improve, but yes he won't cover off counter attacks anything like as well.

 

[BluesRockDJ]

Pretty much exactly that. Watching the Villa-Newcastle game and we would have been torn to pieces by them.
Hopefully we get some extra players in there before the window shuts. Or, we will have to not get annoyed with a mid-table finish as the younger players develop.

Here we go first game of the season against a side who, at times put ten men behind the ball, they got their just deserts in the end......we'll see in a couple of weeks, perhaps with reinforcements, how Newcasle do against us..............mind you smug eddie's teams are a bit of a curse..............

 

[BluesRockDJ]

I don't think we miss macallister. Pedro is as good.

Caicedo of course we miss. In particular, his ability to cover the ground amd make impossible looking tackles from nowhere.

But there are hardly any players who can do what caicedo does, so only buy if we xan add something different to the very good options we have already.

I also think dahoud will continue to improve, but yes he won't cover off counter attacks anything like as well.

FFS forget money grabbing Caceido, the scoreline woul suggest we didn't miss him, reinforcements will be incoming, no doubt about that !