[Albion] Have we spunked our money on average players….or

[Weststander]

This is not to knock Tony Bloom's model, as where it has worked (Caicedo, MacAllister, Bissouma, etc), it has clearly worked very well. Trossard is another example. I know he left heavily out of favour because of his behaviour and attitude, but on form he was virtually unplayable at times. However, I wish we would take more of a mix and match approach, as the likes of Fulham and Nottingham Forest do. Alex Iwobi has been excellent for them the last few times we have played them, and they also tend to go for young players, such as Harry Wilson and Morgan Gibbs-White, who haven't made it at Premier League clubs, or who are on their way down, rather than end of career players.

I am happy with Verbruggen in goal (and one of the positive things Hurzeler has done is to end goalkeeper rotation, which must have helped his confidence, and bar the odd ricket - Tottenham at home and Fulham away he has played very well), but I would be told the reason we wouldn't sign a keeper like Leno is that he wouldn't have any resale value (or wages, but are Fulham that better off than us?). I disagree - I suspect before long one of the Manchester clubs will make Fulham an offer they can't refuse, then Fulham will probably buy Kelleher. I'm not saying we should have bought Leno, just using him as an example of the type of player they go for. Also, taking Trossard as an example, some of our recent signings seem to be more experimental than previously, whereas Trossard was Captain of Genk when we signed him and, as far as I know, already an established Belgian international. Such players are obviously going to take longer to fit well together in a team.

Kelleher is a brilliant goalie, the complete package. I hope his next club is at CL level, wherever that might be in Europe. Craven Cottage would be just a waste with his prime years ahead of him.

 

[Arkwright]

Need a younger Welbz. A natural goal scorer.

Someone that shoots........

Fergusson?
I feel for the lad, loads of talent yet very little game time.
Never know if he's injured or ill?
He really could be our next No 9.

 

[Han Solo]

Do you think Hurzeler is the man to develop these players? So far which players would you say have improved since the beginning of his tenure?

Everyone who were here last season when the team had relegation form for more than 7 months.

I'm willing to reconsider it if Southampton or Ipswich stomps us with 4-0 like Luton last season but as it stands we're much, much better than we were especially last spring.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Anybody know how many times weve been able to play the same team 2 or 3 times in a row? The impact of injuries?

It isn't just injuries though.
We have only played the same midfield pair once in two consecutive Prem matches (Ayari and Hinshelwood)

Baleba has taken his chance, but has yet to play with the same partner in two consecutive games.
Playing with Milner, Ayari, Weiffer, Hinshelwood across his first 5 starts and latterly with O'Riley.
Some of these changes are due to injury, but mostly down to Huerzeler shuffling his midfield around.

 

[Albion in the north]

It isn't just injuries though.
We have only played the same midfield pair once in two consecutive Prem matches (Ayari and Hinshelwood)

Baleba has taken his chance, but has yet to play with the same partner in two consecutive games.
Playing with Milner, Ayari, Weiffer, Hinshelwood across his first 5 starts and latterly with O'Riley.
Some of these changes are due to injury, but mostly down to Huerzeler shuffling his midfield around.

So out of that group of midfielders. Milner long term injured, Weiffer a coiuple of injuries and struggled to get up to speed initially, Hinshelwood long term injury, O'Riley long term injury. Baleba daft sending off. If you add in the injuries in defence, Veltman, Dunky, Ferdi, Van Hecke it hardly makes for a settled side.

 

[dazzer6666]

It isn't just injuries though.
We have only played the same midfield pair once in two consecutive Prem matches (Ayari and Hinshelwood)

Baleba has taken his chance, but has yet to play with the same partner in two consecutive games.
Playing with Milner, Ayari, Weiffer, Hinshelwood across his first 5 starts and latterly with O'Riley.
Some of these changes are due to injury, but mostly down to Huerzeler shuffling his midfield around.

Literally all those partners you mention have missed several games with injury. The shuffling at the start would make sense, then he’s not had the opportunity to select a consistent pairing. It’s not mostly down to shuffling at all.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Literally all those partners you mention have missed several games with injury. The shuffling at the start would make sense, then he’s not had the opportunity to select a consistent pairing. It’s not mostly down to shuffling at all.

OK I've done the hard yards to check if my feeling on this was way off or not.

The midfield has remained the same as the previous match on just 3 occasions
It has changed for the other 14 games for the following reasons:

• Injury 4 times - United, Forest, Bournemouth, Brentford
• Suspension once - Southampton
• Transfer once - Ipswich (Gilmour started 1 game in midfield 8 days before he signed for Napoli)
• Tactical 2 times - Chelsea, Spurs ( 3 in midfield for Chelsea, Back to 2 for Spurs)
• Change to midfield -6 times - Arsenal, Wolves, Liverpool, Fulham, Leicester, West Ham

I would argue that of the 14 changes only 5 were forced changes, the other 9 were shuffling to one degree or another.
Either way, the sheer number of variations we have played in midfield may well be a factor in our inconsistent performances.

Most frequent pairings

• Baleba/Ayari - 4 times
• Baleba/Hinshelwood - 3 times + 1 as a 3 man midfield.

* I have used transfermarkt as the source for injury/suspension - they didn't have Wieffer down as injured for Brentford game - I assume tthey are just behind on their stats for the last game.