[Albion] What WAS Roberto thinking?

[BluesRockDJ]

What I saw today was awful errors by Mitoma, Veltman and Estupian put us out of the game while Webster was running around like a grandad giving us no hope to put in last ditch saves. What that has to do with the middle two I’m not sure, I’m not really convinced Mac and Caicedo playing today could have made any difference to that.

Sometimes you just have bad days where lots of things go wrong at the same time. It was one of those days - you move on quickly and expect higher standards from our players with good records

You're right, Mac and Caceido were here last season when Villa did the double over us.

 

[Greenbag50]

I imagine when we're out of the cups and Europe we'll see a strongest eleven game in game out for the second half. And then hopefully go again in Europe and the league 24-25 with a more experienced team. Its a long game.

This….. ambition has to be ending in European places again next season in PL, with this season being the experience provider.
That is how you build steadily.
Not first season in Europe, win it.
Not how it works. It’s a progression with incremental improvements, season on season.
It’s what we’ve done over last 10 years, which has been successful.
UTA

 

[Bodian]

This excuse pees me off. We have played a grand total of ONE game more than the rest of the league. How at this point are we not used to playing so many games? I could understand if we were half way through the season.

I think he means that we are preparing / trying to be ready for the number of games coming up. This time last year, we would have been able to put out the same side (barring injuries) whereas this year he's trying to rotate to make sure no-one gets too much game time and those that will be needed have some game time. I don't think he really means we've played more games yet - but that we have loads coming up.

 

[Albion in the north]

We have the bodies but replacing that ability just wasn't going to happen straight away, not even with our succession planning and scouting.

Thats kind of the thing though with Caicedo, we didnt have any succesion planning. We probably knew that we were going to lose him and in reality we needed to start finding someone when we lost Biss/Enoch. Not a complaint but its where our planning has let us down a bit.

 

[Zeus]

Thats kind of the thing though with Caicedo, we didnt have any succesion planning. We probably knew that we were going to lose him and in reality we needed to start finding someone when we lost Biss/Enoch. Not a complaint but its where our planning has let us down a bit.

You can’t really just replace a £115m CDM like for like and we bought Baleba who fits our model of potential with the right attributes. We can’t just stockpile players in the squad.

 

[amexer]

De Zerbi is beyond criticism and has reasons for making his decisions but understand supporters asking why we spent £30m on Pedro £25m on Baleba £20m on keeper plus loaned Fati and are all on the bench

 

[Bodian]

De Zerbi is beyond criticism and has reasons for making his decisions but understand supporters asking why we spent £30m on Pedro £25m on Baleba £20m on keeper plus loaned Fati and are all on the bench

I suppose because part of his tactics seem to be to keep the opposition at bay for the first half - then run them ragged in the second with the subs.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

This….. ambition has to be ending in European places again next season in PL, with this season being the experience provider.
That is how you build steadily.
Not first season in Europe, win it.
Not how it works. It’s a progression with incremental improvements, season on season.
It’s what we’ve done over last 10 years, which has been successful.
UTA

No way will we finish in European places. We can't keep clean sheets and we can't keep scoring two or more goals to try and win games. We can't defend or score from set pieces and we lack real depth in the squad. We lack pace in defence and have too many lightweight players throughout the team.
Those who think today was a blip need to consider that we have been poor for 4 games now...have made multiple changes...and have conceded a whole stack of terrible goals.

 

[trueblue]

It’s the style of team that is beating us that’s the issue. Teams that sit deep, hit on the counter and play narrow predominantly. There’s nothing wrong with being a bit more pragmatic against sides that you know will do this.

More worrying than that today I think. This wasn’t one of those games we bossed while the opposition put away every chance they had. It was a huge first half disconnect again between 9 of the side and the 2 strikers that meant Villa could take control.

 

[Dave the OAP]

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

I wonder what happened to him. Where did he go? Also where is Sarmiento( sp?)

 

[Greenbag50]

No way will we finish in European places. We can't keep clean sheets and we can't keep scoring two or more goals to try and win games. We can't defend or score from set pieces and we lack real depth in the squad. We lack pace in defence and have too many lightweight players throughout the team.
Those who think today was a blip need to consider that we have been poor for 4 games now...have made multiple changes...and have conceded a whole stack of terrible goals.

The reason he is making changes is to accommodate the Thursday games.
Once we no longer have those games after Xmas, we can can play 1 game a week. (I’m assuming we go out of Europe, and hope we do)
This will provide us a weekly game schedule and get back to a consistent selection for second half of the season.
We therefore have picked up experience and allows us to focus on the 19 league games left to finish top 6 again.

 

[Bodian]

I wonder what happened to him. Where did he go? Also where is Sarmiento( sp?)

Standard Liege and West Brom on loans

 

[Eeyore]

No way will we finish in European places. We can't keep clean sheets and we can't keep scoring two or more goals to try and win games. We can't defend or score from set pieces and we lack real depth in the squad. We lack pace in defence and have too many lightweight players throughout the team.
Those who think today was a blip need to consider that we have been poor for 4 games now...have made multiple changes...and have conceded a whole stack of terrible goals.

Had to look at the table after that. It must have been upside down. For some reason it reckons Albion have scored 19 goals in the league this year.

It's the way they play. And for a club with the budget they have it mostly works.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

The reason he is making changes is to accommodate the Thursday games.
Once we no longer have those games after Xmas, we can can play 1 game a week. (I’m assuming we go out of Europe, and hope we do)
This will provide us a weekly game schedule and get back to a consistent selection for second half of the season.
We therefore have picked up experience and allows us to focus on the 19 league games left to finish top 6 again.

I agree. I hope we finish bottom and go out. Best for all concerned. We can't cope with this fixture pressure.

 

[nickjhs]

I agree that losing that one game isn't a disaster, (shame it had to be by so many though), losing however can quickly become a habit.

We need to bounce back fast.

This is the third loss in a row, following a win which had a very flattering final score. I have been concerned that once the other teams catch on to how we are playing they will work out how to beat us. The issue lies with our passing, it has to be darn near perfect or else we get punished, yesterday was a prime example of this.

 

[Zeus]

Shearer on MOTD saying our midfield got BULLIED today. He is totally right and RDZ has to take responsibility for the team selection. A total novice and a striker at CAM alongside a Gilmour who gifted the ball to Villa for several goals with the support. This amount of rotation has to stop.

 

[BadFish]

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.

Baleba and Mahoud are the replacements. Milner is also a centre mid so both he and Gilmore getting more game time are also the replacements

You may not think that they are adequate replacements but to say they haven't been replaced is simply incorrect.

 

[tigertim68]

We have lost 3 out of the last 4 because of the rotation system , which is meant to keep the players fresh mentally and physically,
well if we continue like this till Xmas , we will be out of Europe, mid table team , out of the cup , but will have some mentally and physically fresh players

 

[Albion in the north]

You can’t really just replace a £115m CDM like for like and we bought Baleba who fits our model of potential with the right attributes. We can’t just stockpile players in the squad.

Not sure you need to be standing up for the club as it does a pretty good job but the facts remain. Mwepu retired a year ago and we sold Biss more than a year ago leaving just with Moises in that CDM role. We pretty much knew in January that Caicedo was going this summer. We are always praised for our forward planning but one of the hardest players to replace we had no back up plan. Maybe no one was available but it was pretty obvious that we would miss Caicedo. Im not criticising just pointing out the facts. No one is saying that we should stockpile players but we didnt even have a youngster coming through when we sold him. Gilmour is very much a Mac replacement, Dahoud just feels like a punt on a free player but definitely not a DM. The ideal scenario would have been Baleba (or one of the others we were linked with) in January to bring up to speed or even Locatelli in the summer. Im not seeking perfection just pointing out the situation. Im sure the club were trying but felt they were just trying to be a bit too clever. Just my opinion.

 

[nwgull]

This excuse pees me off. We have played a grand total of ONE game more than the rest of the league. How at this point are we not used to playing so many games? I could understand if we were half way through the season.

We’ve played the same number of games as got a bye in League Cup.

I agree. I hope we finish bottom and go out. Best for all concerned. We can't cope with this fixture pressure.

What a terrible lack of ambition. What’s the point in celebrating finishing 6th on the world’s strongest league if we’re then happy to crash out of Europe? We should be winning our group.