[Albion] What WAS Roberto thinking?

[The Wizard]

Answers on a postcard please.

Playing Gilmour and Hinselwood in midfield against Luiz, McGinn and Ramsay has potential to be one of the most mind boggling tactical decisions I’ve ever seen at the Albion, even Mac and Caicedo struggled to contain the Villa midfield last season.

Today really highlighted our lack of proper match ready replacement for those two key players we lost, which has finally come back to haunt us. Oh and just how vital Gross is to this team.

Maybe reading too much into it but RDZ can’t be happy with the midfield we’ve been left with surely? To sell £150m of world class midfielders and not replace them is rather questionable to say the least.

 

[Wozza]

Another thread on this. Great!

 

[The Wizard]

Another thread on this. Great!

Maybe we should use this thread as a more general thing for when RDZ makes his wacky tactical decisions that backfire… he’s lucky he normally gets it right!

 

[Guinness Boy]

Answers on a postcard please.

Playing Gilmour and Hinselwood in midfield against Luiz, McGinn and Ramsay has potential to be one of the most mind boggling tactical decisions I’ve ever seen at the Albion, even Mac and Caicedo struggled to contain the Villa midfield last season.

Today really highlighted our lack of proper match ready replacement for those two key players we lost, which has finally come back to haunt us. Oh and just how vital Gross is to this team.

Maybe reading too much into it but RDZ can’t be happy with the midfield we’ve been left with surely? To sell £150m of world class midfielders and not replace them is rather questionable to say the least.

Maybe he was thinking “shit, these are the only fit midfielders we have.”

That’s what I’d have been thinking

 

[Littlemo]

Oh and just how vital Gross is to this team

To be controversial (and I love Gross) but I don’t think even if he were fit and played, that the result would have been much different. He isn’t an especially strong DM himself, and has looked overrun in games before himself. It may have been the difference in a few goals tbf, but I think it would be the same result.

 

[Bakero]

The good news is Real Madrid and other vultures will be looking elsewhere for the forseeable meaning we keep the flawed genius.

 

[dwayne]

Maybe he was thinking “shit, these are the only fit midfielders we have.”

That’s what I’d have been thinking

Nah Baleba was ok to play. Ok he's raw but at least he's strong. Absolutely mental decision.

 

[Swimboy64]

Answers on a postcard please.

Playing Gilmour and Hinselwood in midfield against Luiz, McGinn and Ramsay has potential to be one of the most mind boggling tactical decisions I’ve ever seen at the Albion, even Mac and Caicedo struggled to contain the Villa midfield last season.

Today really highlighted our lack of proper match ready replacement for those two key players we lost, which has finally come back to haunt us. Oh and just how vital Gross is to this team.

Maybe reading too much into it but RDZ can’t be happy with the midfield we’ve been left with surely? To sell £150m of world class midfielders and not replace them is rather questionable to say the least.

Absolutely

 

[AmexRuislip]

If we'd beaten Villa today 6-1 with the same team selection, we'd all be praising RDZ.
He makes the decisions and will get them wrong and so what.
We lost 2 major midfielders, so will have to adjust.
Move on....

 

[Guinness Boy]

Nah Baleba was ok to play. Ok he's raw but at least he's strong. Absolutely mental decision.

No I meant in the squad.

We’ve won four games this season without Baleba. Dahoud doesn’t look good enough either.

 

[The Wizard]

Maybe he was thinking “shit, these are the only fit midfielders we have.”

That’s what I’d have been thinking

We’ve gone into a European season with a midfield significantly weaker than last season.

Our recognised CM’s are:
Gross
Gilmour
Baleba - not ready
Dahoud - not convinced by him.

We knew we had games every 3 days and one injury means we are playing an inexperienced young lad in midfield.

I don’t want to be reactionary because we’ve had a fantastic start to the season but today does really highlight just what a massive loss those two were, especially without proper match ready replacements.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

We lost that game out wide, not in the central positions. He probably didn't expect Veltman and Estupinan to defend like idiots and get no hope from the wingers or centre backs

 

[Guinness Boy]

We’ve gone into a European season with a midfield significantly weaker than last season.

Our recognised CM’s are:
Gross
Gilmour
Baleba - not ready
Dahoud - not convinced by him.

We knew we had games every 3 days and one injury means we are playing an inexperienced young lad in midfield.

I don’t want to be reactionary because we’ve had a fantastic start to the season but today does really highlight just what a massive loss those two were, especially without proper match ready replacements.

100%. Selling Caicedo looks stupider every day.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Makes me wonder why we didn't just keep hold of Alzate until January at least. Weird decision to let him go.

 

[The Wizard]

We lost that game out wide, not in the central positions. He probably didn't expect Veltman and Estupinan to defend like idiots and get no hope from the wingers or centre backs

If you have capable midfielders pressing the pass it’s a lot more difficult to find the wingers though isn’t it?

Obviously the whole team played shite, but when I saw the starting line up my first thought was our midfield could get bullied, and I’m surprised RDZ did not think similar given how strong the Villa midfield is (they have Tielemans on the bench FFS)

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

If you have capable midfielders pressing the pass it’s a lot more difficult to find the wingers though isn’t it?

Obviously the whole team played shite, but when I saw the starting line up my first thought was our midfield could get bullied, and I’m surprised RDZ did not think similar given how strong the Villa midfield is (they have Tielemans on the bench FFS)

So our best defensive midfielder players and our best pressing player (Gross) was out injured.

Our widemen and centre backs more of an issue than centre mid today

 

[Littlemo]

If you have capable midfielders pressing the pass it’s a lot more difficult to find the wingers though isn’t it?

Obviously the whole team played shite, but when I saw the starting line up my first thought was our midfield could get bullied, and I’m surprised RDZ did not think similar given how strong the Villa midfield is (they have Tielemans on the bench FFS)

Every pass the midfielders played forward ended up with the forwards losing the ball and not holding it up though. They needed an outlet to play the ball but weren’t getting any.

 

[Gully Forever]

I thought Lallana should be available for midfield. Guess not. In a negative light, one could say having both lallana and milner out of fitness/injured throughout most of the season is a waste of 2 squad positions that we could utilize for 3 games a week. and now with enciso out and welbeck bound to be off long term at some point. our squad isn't that great for depth.

 

[The Wizard]

So our best defensive midfielder players and our best pressing player (Gross) was out injured.

Our widemen and centre backs more of an issue than centre mid today

It was like watching a flyweight boxer against Mike Tyson in midfield.

Going with a 2 man midfield, one of whom is a young lad making his debut, away to one of the best teams/midfields in the league was utterly bonkers.

There were big issues in other areas but from the start this set us out with a big disadvantage.

 

[Icy Gull]

I don’t buy RDZ’s post match comments about “not being used to playing so many games”. Who exactly has played too many games, he keeps rotating them? Haven’t heard the interview but if he did say that it’s bollocks. It could work in the long term but at the moment the wheels are coming off with the rotation, don’t blame the amount of games players have played. It’s not true.