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Albion blogger Jarrod Hill talks dignity in defeat at Arsenal, the need for a bigger squad and the centre of defence ahead of the Hawthorns’ first Premier League game of the season against Everton.
I thought on Saturday that if we could go to the Emirates and come away with added confidence for the season ahead, then I would be happy and I think that’s what we got.
I can only name one player who I thought had a poor game and to the man they all looked comfortable against a very good team.
Barnett and Meite at the back looked good, Greening and Kim in midfield were excellent, Miller’s work rate upfront meant he was constant threat. Overall I was very happy and with a bit of luck we would have come away with a draw.
We read on Sunday that Mowbray is confident of adding at least four more players to the existing squad, so hopefully in the not too distant future we may have already seen someone sign.
Media reports are strongly intimating that we have agreed a deal for Valero from Mallorca (I hope he brings the sunshine with him). The deal will represent a sign of our intention to pull out the stops to survive in the Premiere League.
One look at our substitutes bench on Saturday quickly clarified the need for additional players and additional quality. We do have injured players to return, it would be naïve to think we will not suffer injuries throughout the season.
Koren will make a huge difference. It will allow possibly Morrison to move out wide right, Cech played ok on the right but often looked awkward being left footed.
So now we look forward to Everton on Saturday, I can’t wait. One thing I will miss from the Championship is midweek games. I always think the atmosphere at night games is better yet with eight games less this season there will be fewer games under floodlights.
Zuiverloon is now back at the club after Holland were knocked out in the quarter finals by Argentina. He is an exciting addition and will provide competition for Hoefkens. Carl was one player who seemed to struggle with the occasion on Saturday.
Nearly all of Arsenal’s attacks came from their left hand side but on a positive note not every Premier League team plays with the kind of attacking movement that Arsenal do.
My man of the match was young Leon Barnett (tight decision from Kim). He was immense, putting his body on the line and remaining focused throughout. I was also surprised how easily he formed a good understanding with Meite.
Meite himself played well and as he gains more game time I am sure he will improve and be a big player for us this season.
If we play as well against Everton I am confident of getting a result and look forward to see who rolls through the doors before the transfer window closes.
See you Saturday.
46 Comments
A good blog but very tinted glasses on. Albion threatened once and that was because of shocking defending from Arsenal, apart from that no threat at all. Greening was poor and didnt get into the game at all. Hoefkens was horribly out of his depth. This was a very under strength Arsenal who also played mid week. Adebayor was awful and the game should of been wrapped up alot earlier if it wasnt for his greed. Similar to pompey you kept to playing nice football but no real threat, this is why ultimately you will go down. Valero is now talking to Newcastle after his Agent made his availability known. Everton were shocking on saturday but I still can’t see you turning them over. Phillips is still benging them in though!
hi jarrod,great blog and preety much the same as i felt after our display against the great arsenel,young barnett was awesome and will be abig big player for us this season as will kim,,with young gee-arni zooverloon coming in and some new mowbray gems we will have plenty to look forward to this season and may well surprise ourselfs,,cant wait till everton game,,PLAYING IN THE PREM THE MOWBRAY WAY,,IN STYLE OF COURSE,,OOOOOOOOOH YES..
Jarrod,
I agree with you in relation to the bench, it certainly raised my eyebrows when i took a glance at it, not very strong.
I thought Barnett was excellent at the back, he did have 1 or 2 minor misjudgments when it came to Carson but then again i think SC had probs with Meite and Robbo that game too so maybe down to SC not Barnett, Meite looked as quick as I expected him to be and he isnt a shy player either.
Did anyone else see Barnetts dummy run at Adebayor?? I thought it was pure genius and fooled the guy into losing the ball….Ha!
Sorry to hear about Craddock, Wolves boys.
Jarrod.,
Agree with your comments especially regarding Barnett and Meite they were immense. It was disappointing to concede so early and in my view it was down to Jonno and Check not tracking their runners, having said that we could have collapsed from such a blow but we stuck at it and like you I thin we can take great confidence from the performance.
Bring on the Toffees’s I can’t wait.
laughingwilf,,i take it you wernt at the custard bowl then if you were watching us,,say no more….ENJOYING THE PREM THE MOWBRAY WAY,,IN STYLE OF COURSE,,OOOOOOOOOOOH YES..
Hope you are right but I thought we looked pretty clueless. Ok we only got beat 1-0 and there were positives(when aren’t there) but tactics in the first half were terrible. Hoef Cech Brunty and Jonno were poor—Barnet and Robbo were immense as was KIm and I think Miller looked great and I thought Carson will be great.
But we desperately need those 4 players and fast. However the team spirit was great and I think we will survive.
1.- Valero isn’t talking to Newcastle, i think you’ll find its Trejo, the Argentine striker who wasn’t keen on leaving Mallorca. Secondly Phillips will always score in the lower leagues. I genuinely believe that he would not have beneifted the team by staying. Before you criticise our team you might want to take a long look at your team of no hopers!
Jarrod - Agree with the majority of the blog, especially Barnett Man of the Match. I think that we will get a result on Saturday as long as Yakubu doesn’t bully our defence and we keep Arteta quiet.
MacDonald looked useful when he came on, just needs to improve the final ball and decision making. He could be a big impact player for us this season if he gets his confidence up, an ideal opportunity is Hartlepool in the cup.
Oh well the font of universal knowledge has spoken
Further participation in this terms premier league is a pointless exercise, i was quite looking forward to picking up enough points to ensure another season in the top flight, but LW says we will go down, that should be sufficient guidance for us all, because the guy is NEVER wrong………………Or like all of us suspect he is just a bitter individual who is a pious self important confrontational oaf.
If you can get a goalscorer you might survive. Trouble is in the prem £10 million only gets the likes of Andy Johnson who is a bit hit or miss.
Who would be your ideal striker signing?
Great_Barr Baggie
We might be in luck, isnt Arteta on international duty??
Oh and another thing I`ve just heard Valero is talking to Liverpool this morning. His agent has just used you. Sorry to bring such bad news but you were never going to sign a player of his class.
I agree Barnett had a great game, but Kim was my man of the match i thought he was our most dangerous player throughout.
I think these wolves fans that butt in on albion pages need to get there facts right before making comments about players who may or may not be coming to us.
Other than that, i’m confident of getting a result on saturday
funny isnt it. The wolves seem confident we will go down after loosin 1-0 at Highbury. Yet them drawing at Plymouth on the first day still has no bearing on their chances of promotion?! How interesting
here we go again the dingles win a game and they know everything, you lot really do my head in i bumped into a wolves fan at wellington pheonix game on sunday nz time,he was arrogant rude and knew nothing about football but thought he would try and be clever going on about us losing to arsenal, so what i seem to remember they have lost just once in two years at the emirates so no real surprise we lost ,but take huge heart in saying as the game wore on we grew in confidence just how we w2ill grow with every game played. also arsenal had players out but so did we ,anyway would also like to say good on the blues fan i also met and how down to earth they are ,hope phillips gets plenty for you especially against the dog heads boing boing from aoteroa
I agree Barnett had a great game, although Kim was my man of the match as he looked our most dangerous player throughout.
I think these wolves fans that insist on butting in on albion pages need to get there facts right before commenting on players that may or may not be coming to us.
Other than that, i’m confident of getting a result saturday!
Good morning everyone
Jarrod.
Sorry mate on you ‘missing the mid-week games’ good riddance to them i say.
Following the Baggies all over the country is expensive enough as it is.
Cost of ticket, cost of coach travel, plus fayre around £12.00 for a taxi back to the other side of Brum, that’s enough for me.
Saturday/Sunday rules “ok!”
That’s why i won’t be making the mid week trips to Hartlepool and Newcastle.
But good luck to those who can afford the expense.
As regards the Arsenal game i agree there is cause for optimism providing the proposed ‘rumoured’ signings are bought in.
To the Wolves fan who claim it was a very under strength Arsenal (!)how i wish the Baggies had a bench containing the likes of Van Persie as opposed to Sherjill MacDonald!
Ditto Wolves supporters?
“Come on you Baggies”
1. Laughingwolf - so when Arsenal attack it’s because they are superior, even with an ‘understrength’ side. When WBA have a chance it’s because of ’shocking defending’.
Greening wasn’t poor - though i agree he wasn’t as good as Jarrod suggests in my eyes. He had a very difficult afternoon but ultimately his and Morrison’s work allowed Kim to go forward - not easy given the circumstances.
Adebayor wasn’t ‘awful’ - his fininshing wasn’t the best (partly due to the fact that eventually we learned how to defend against him and reduced him to pot shots). Maybe the TV didn’t do justice to the way his movement and stregth teased us, going left, going right, thru the middle, he is still a class act who wasn’t allowed to shine - credit to us me thinks!!!
Hoefkens did look horribly out of his depth, but a) he had little protection against the awesome Clichy, Nasri, Adebayor going wide etc, from Cech who was struggling himself with playing out of postion in a new environment. And b) even Hoff improved in the 2nd half & got to grips slightly!
Yes Phillips is still banging them in… In the vastly inferior league which you play in!!
And as for the rest of your comments… Well typically gold & black tinted glasses i’m afraid. So Valero is going to Newcastle? Thanks for the info - sour grapes cos you aren’t in for players of that calibre.
We will lose to Everton and will go down - now you do surprise me with those shock predictions!!
Good blog again Jarrod!
Laughingwolf
The drug free cure for insomnia.
I notice Shelton Martis was on the bench. You’d all better hope he stays there. A Division Two player brought to Hibs by Mowbray for nothing — and then to WBA for almost zilch.
Most error prone defender ever to play for Hibbs — scoring 3 own goals on his debut and letting one in on his last game — with all the other of hi appearances littered with his mistakes.
Along with Meite, who refused to paly for Bolton and Meggers, are these the type of players being recruited for the Premiership?
It’ll be a miracle if WBA do even as well as Derby — bookies already paying out.
Gents - Saturday should be encouraging, some very obvious plus points, carson, kim, even barnett etc, and only losing 1-0 to Arsenal on there own patch is a good result, you will defiantly stay up and i think you are showing good ambition with the signings you are trying to make even though i know nothing about them. There are a couple of problems i think you need to iron out and that would be cech playing on the right when he is left footed and this one shold sort itself out is playing 2 upfront at home and at some away grounds. I do think you had an opportunity on Saturday to attack Arsenal a little more as they had so many players out however i do appreciate the risk that comes with it. Obviously the results you obtain against the top 4 are usually a bonus and it can be a case of damage limitation. Good start lets hope you sort the toffees out on saturday although i would love to see a lescott goal.
BoingBoing666 - I don’t know if he’s back or not, i hope he isn’t.
I hear Rafa is trying to offload Pennant and Voronin. I think Pennant is going to Blackburn, but Voronin would surely be worth a cheeky bid???
Laughing Wolf - Oh well if we miss out on Valero we could always tempt Kightly away from your small club, with a chance to prove himself at the highest level!!
I really can’t be bothered with any moron who thinks Jarrod is wearing tinted specs - and then just posts the same old “you are rubbish” drivel. If we ignore the buffoon he might just go away.
I was suprised when TM brought MacDonald on before Bednar - but then i thought he did really well and posed a threat with his pace. He also looks stronger this year.
We need just a couple of quality additions to the squad, but i thought we played pretty well with MacD, Roman and Beattie on, so I wouldn’t rush to get them out the door.
laughingwolf
you do make me laugh, is Mowbray going to move away next? tell me wheres Robbo going? who’s talking secretly with Greening and Miller(secretly enough for some red faced cretin like you to know), who’s going to snatch Zuiverloon from us? When will the world end? will i win the lottery? will my band ever take off? Whats the meaning of life? What REALLY happened at Roswell? Whats the weather gonna be like on my birthday weekend in September? Tell me, tell me all of it!
You must know.
Good blog as usuall Jarrod .We played well yes but dont forget if arsenal had there shootin boots on we would have lost heavily,impressed with barnett and meite and miller looked promisin,lets just hope he trys that hard in every game !
Boing boing
laughing
Are you a moron? It’s Trejo who Newcastle are interested in and where is this Liverpool in for Valero news you seem to have ‘heard’? You seem to be the only one (including all major websites and tabloids) that knows about it!
Although I see LW is still posting thwe same old nonsense as every other day, at least so far today he has used his own name. The constant postings using made up albion names was even more childish than usual.
20 - so bookies are paying out on us already are they ? I bet (in your little world) they are also paying out on wolves being champions too.
You are so thick you could be LW using a made up wolves name - hmmmmmm.
Werewolf
Wow, didn’t think it but we’ve found a bigger moron than laughing! Martis scored conceded three own goals in the first half of the season not his debut you idiot! And he was on the bench (due to Clement being injured), not the starting line up because we have what’s known as a squad.
Honestly you dingles really do give us some ammunition with your jealous, ill conceived comments don’t you?
26. Yes he is - just thought i’d save him the trouble of confirming it for you!
Great_Barr Baggie
Who’s this guy then? I havent heard of him? I WANT RICHARDSON BACK!!
take no notice of laughingwilf,,he thinks hes clever and funny like our terry but hes just a boring dingle jealous of our success,,,knuckle dragger….ENJOYING THE PREM WITH SUPA MOWS BLUE AND WHITE ARMY,,,IN STYLE OF COURSE,,OOOOOOOOOH YES..
The Dingles need a centre half, they can take Martis on loan. Better than anything they have got.
Staying Mid-table the Mad Mick Way!
BoingBoing666.
Andei Voronin is a Ukranian international striker who has scored a decent amount everywhere he’s been, including liverpool (28 apps, 6 goals). Not prolific, but he is a clever a player and would suit playing with Miller and Moore.
2,hey worcester yow spellins gettin wuz than mine aye boing boing up the MOWBURY WAY
Great blogg Jarrod,I think we played pretty well once we settled,Miller,Barnett,Kim,Meite,mcdonald all looked good,cech didnt look so hot but he was well out of position.
24,very funny mate,made me laugh when I read it…
Whats the wolves fans on about?
Valero has agreed terms + passed a medical and will be unveiled in the next 24 hours.
Jarrod, thanks again for another excellent blog.
As I said yesterday, (or was it Sunday??) Well, whenever I got home from the match, I’m extremely confident that we’ll stay up this season.
A good, solid display, and I think plenty more to come from the current squad.
Add extra talent into it and we’ll be flying!!
One extra thing regarding LoffingWulf. It’s not worth the bother replying to him. He’s like a virus, he really does bore me, and the more we reply to his opinions, the more he’ll keep coming back. He’s an idiot and a nause, let’s just leave him to it.
Jarrod agree fully with your view about the need to strengthen the squad with more quality.H.B. please don’t call me a dingle or associate me LW.Ive been an Albion fan for 40 years so your judgement is wrong.I thought my opinion on the quality of our squad was reasonable TM said recently, he is looking to strengthen all areas of the team.I’m sure JP will do all within his powers to fulfill TMs plans BOING BOING
We hung in there early on and then started to get some confidence. There’s no disputing that Arsenal deserved the win, but I think we’ll get stronger as the season progresses especially with a few additions. Really hoping that we can get this Valero signed up + a couple more before the deadline. Looking forward to Everton game.
Most of Wolves fans quite rightly seem to be concentrating on their own teams efforts these days, apart from one or two ’supporters’.
Laughing at you Wolf.
Baggiebirder - sorry if I have misunderstood your comments - your suggestion that leon barnett looked out of this depth on saturday, when everyone else could see how well he played against one of the worlds top strikers just sounded like one of our orange neighbours having a pop, so please accept my apologies if thats not the case.
Laughing - what does the village do when you go out of town?
I have to presume you’re called laughing because you’re some sort of clown. It shows. Why don’t you stick to the fizzy pop blogs there’s a good lad and leave the big boy stuff to those that know.
“11…laughingwolf said: Aug 19th, 2008 at 10:38 am Oh and another thing I`ve just heard Valero is talking to Liverpool this morning. His agent has just used you. Sorry to bring such bad news but you were never going to sign a player of his class.”
yet we have signed him - any more comments to make you look more of a plank? You really are a silly little man
At this moment in time I am concerned about our firepower up front (no KP) WHERE ARE THE GOALS COMING FROM and I hope very much the new player’s gel very quickly, otherwise at the blink of an eye the Baggies will find themselves in trouble. looking fwd to seeing the new signing of Zheng Zhi from Charlton the new Brendon Batson, any old Baggie fans out there will know want I mean.
27. Happy_Baggie…I didn’t find any bookies paying out on your lot going down, but I did put a bet on an unlikely Albion win @ 16-1. Such outrageous odds were irresitable even to me. (well admittedly it was more a case of insuring against you winning. You know you’d all be more unbearable than normal if you’d won…and I need to insure against such an unthinkable event.)
Same thing happened to us when we played Man U…bookies believed the hype that they’d put 10 past us, & gave us equally ridiculous odds for a home win, which we won & made us all rich.
So thanks a bunch for losing me money.
Simon
Laughing Wolf.
What was that you said?
Oh yes, just checked and your quote reads “His agent has used you. Sorry to bring such bad news but you were never going to sign a player of his class”
Well, well! Now he HAS signed can i ask you to divulge just who told you he was talking to Liverpool?
Just out of curiosity of course!
“Come on you Baggies”
PS…After admitting he IS a class player can we expect a rapid change of heart with you saying “He’s another rubbish signing”?
All Albion fans await yet another sarcastic comment with interest.
And by the way that was a very good CHAMPIONSHIP win against Sheffield Wednesday.
Now i’me falling into your trap, but it WAS a convincing victory.
KiwiBaggie…what the heck do you know about football if you watch Wellington Phoenix
Mind you, I have to suffer going to see Queensland Roar, and that’s just as bad. The Valero signing is a major coup for you lot, I reckon a decent CB and a “hands on” striker would see you out of the bottom 6 all season.Good blog, and good luck on Saturday.After seeing our old pal Lescott having a mare against Blackburn, I reckon you will win by the odd goal this weekend.Best wishes from sunny Brisbane