The Pits

This topic contains 6 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by  Northwich Baggie 1 year, 10 months ago.

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  • #2084865

    sarky parky
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    Last night the Baggies plumbed the depths. There’s really no words to describe the selection and the performance. And Steve Bruce has produced less than his predecessor – I genuinekly didb’t think this was possible. With the possible exception of Andy Carroll, there’s hardly a player who deserves above a three.
    Ideally Bruce should be gone by now as he has singularly failed to do what he was appointed for. There’s little doubt ifsomeone better isn’t apointed soon, next season will be a relegation battle. Currently we must be the worst team in the division. Just one point about players. Bartley is a second rate centre-half, Ajayi is miles better, so what was Bartley chosen for in a game we had to win against arguably the best team in the Championship. Bartley seems to personify our decline. For years we’ve had excellent central defenders -Ollsen, MacAuley, Evans, Dawson, Hegazi. Bartley sadly is a few steps lower than any of these. O’Shea and Ajayi could become an excellent partnership so why not play them.
    Enough said. I’s dispiriting and depressing.

    #2084902

    Northwich Baggie
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    • :

    I stopped watching after the fluke third goal. My heart sank when I saw the team sheet and I don’t think I would have been alone in that! The refereeing was as poor as our performance although that might have been different with 11 men. We have three games left and nothing to play for so let the youngsters have a go, they can’t be any worse than the current shower. At the end of the season Bruce has to go but please don’t replace him with Sean Dyche as that’d be out of the frying pan etc. We need a young(ish) manager with new ideas that work not someone who’s past his sell by.

    #2084987

    fingerwba
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    • :

    My heart sank when I saw the team sheet AND also when i saw who the ref was. I’m sure he has been totally hopeless when refereeing us before and he certainly didn’t disappoint. I actually found myself agreeing with Warnock for about the first time ever.
    That said, we’d have needed to be at our very best to cause Forest any real problems and almost everyone was way off their game. Button …. well at least he kicks better than SJ and he didn’t do too much wrong to be fair. Furlong …accident waiting to happen … Townsend … always struggles badly against the better wingers … Bartley … wrong attitude again, not hungry enough …O’Shea …promising player, pick of the defenders, but he’s no world beater…Clarke … he’s tidy at times, but can go missing as well ….Livermore … another accident waiting to happen ….Reach … i haven’t a clue what position he is supposed to be playing or what is his best position …worryingly neither does he … or Bruce it would seem. … Mowatt .. has talent but lacks speed & lacks physicality and so this league is hard for him …TGH had a poor game, but I’m sure he will improve … Molumby is yet another accident waiting to happen …. Grant … not hungry enough, waste of space, Carroll .. he is limited by talent and by age, but gives everything, if only some of the others did .. Phillips … clearly one of our most talented players, but without good players around him, it is an uphill struggle to make an impact.
    I actually thought Steve Bruce would lift this team enough to give us a chance of the play offs, but he has failed quite badly to improve us much, if at all. I think we all knew that the players weren’t anywhere near good enough and that the squad was very unbalanced, so we know he is only a part of the problem. I would expect him to be sacked after around 10 games next season unless we’re in the top 2, so might be better to remove him now for a complete clear out during the summer. Big decisions.

    #2085276

    sarky parky
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    • :

    Better to sack him now.What will ten games of next season show that this season hasn’t exemplified.It’s been a criminal waste of game time by the likes of Reach, Mowatt, Bartley etc when young players could have been blooded. It’s too late now. Three games left and we finish the season in mid-table anonymity with little proven except that Bruce and most of these players are not the answer, something we knew at least seven or eight games ago. And I agree with Northwich that neither is Dyche the answer. He seems a continuation of the long line of neanderthal managers who had shot their bolts at one club – Pulis (Stoke), Pardew (West Ham), Allardyce (Bolton), and Bruce (Blues) and had little left. They were interspersed with youngish managers – Big Dave, not quite up to it, Slaven Bilic, and Valarian, the maverick fraudster who was in effect anti-football. Slaven was the only success story but he was sacked when it became clear he would be unlikely to keep us in the PL. In this long drawn out failure which has finally led us back to the state we were in when Brian Talbot got the sack in 1990, we missed out on Graham Potter and Paul Johnson. Hopefully we’ll make a better choice next time but I’m not holding my breath.

    #2085569

    fingerwba
    Participant
    • :

    Without significant investment in new players with a different attitude, the choice of manager is possibly secondary. In many ways it feels like we have become the Manchester United of the Championship but without our own Ronaldo of course. It’s the attitude that continues to do more damage than anything.
    I’ve always thought Dyche has done a reasonable job with limited resources. I’m sure there are others in the frame, but perhaps Dyche would be the lowest risk option.

    #2090568

    sarky parky
    Participant
    • :

    The difference the right manager can make is surely exmplified by Forest. After 7 games they were rooted to the bottom. Paul Johnson came in since when they have the best points return in the division and tonight play Bournemouth in a match that will decide which one of them gets automatic promotion. Yes he made one or two changes to the playing squad but it qwas Johnson’s enthusism, ambition and vision that has changed the fortunes of the club. Albion will almost certainly I culd be underestimating Steve, but I suspect that Albion will be on the look out for a new manager within the first five to ten games of next season. It’s vital that this time they get it right and appoint a young, ambitious, motivating manager who plasys football the right way, someone like Paul Johnson or Graham Potter. Damn we’ve missed those.

    #2090598

    Northwich Baggie
    Participant
    • :

    I don’t know who Paul Johnson is but Steve Cooper has done a decent job with Forest. I suspect it was mostly down to the players because at Swansea his style of football was defensive and unattractive. I was hoping we’d have let SB go after Saturday but that isn’t going to happen. Judging by the rumours of players he’s after we’ll be setting up to be a mediocre EFL side. Unless something happens I can see him gone by the end of September. There are a number of young managers who could turn things around although most are already employed but Farke ex Norwich is available. I’ve been watching the Bundesliga recently and there’s a couple of managers who’ve worked wonders in getting their team into the top flight and then getting or almost getting them into Europe. This has been done on a lesser budget than us but by finding the right players (from English u23s and similar) they’ve managed it.

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