Albion’s goalscoring crisis looked set to deepen today with Ishmael Miller expected to be ruled out by doctors until the New Year.
Miller became the latest victim of the Hawthorns knee injury jinx in the draw with Portsmouth yesterday and manager Tony Mowbray fears the young forward will be out for at least six weeks.
The Baggies manager was today awaiting results of a scan but the 21-year-old was last night feared to have damaged medial ligaments in a collision with England goalkeeper David James.
“Ishmael collided with James and it was just one of those things,” said Mowbray.
“I think he’s got a medial knee ligament injury, which is a blow to us.
“Although he’s only 21, he is a threat to most teams he plays against because his size, pace and power put teams on the back foot.
“While he’s got a few stitches in his head, he’s off to hospital now to get a scan and X-ray to see what the severity of the injury is.
“But the doctors say it’s a medial knee ligament injury and in my experience it will be a minimum of six weeks out I think.”
The blow to Miller, who joins a growing list of knee injury victims this season, leaves Roman Bednar and Luke Moore as the only senior strikers available to Mowbray until the January transfer window.
And, while he still plans to strengthen when the window opens, the manager has challenged the duo to step up to the mark in Miller’s absence.
“We’re looking to loan players if we can,” said Mowbray. “We’re making enquiries.
“It’s very difficult to bring a Premier League quality striker in who will score you lots of goals. No-one’s going to give you those for free.
“What I look at as a positive is that it will give Luke Moore and Roman Bednar the opportunity to push themselves forward.
“They probably feel as if they should be playing more regularly and will now get an opportunity. Let’s hope one of them comes to the fore and scores. Luke hasn’t really had an opportunity.
“If an opportunity comes from this and he pushes himself forward then that would be great for him.”
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20 Comments
It doesn’t look like we have much of a choice. I thought Luke Moore looked quite sharp when he came on for a change.
Whoever Mowbray picks, get behind the players. I sit towards the back of the Smethwick and the majority of fans give positive encouragement, but some of the fans closer to the front are hurling all sorts of abuse at our players and groaning whenever there is a missed pass or a small mistake. The players can hear what people say and it doesn’t help getting on there backs.
Take the positives from yesterday, because it was a good performance overall.
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When Luke Moore scores his first hat trick for us, I’ll run round West Brom naked with my mates Elvis and Santa!
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This is a shame as he’s recently started playing very well.
Your hand’s been forced now Mogga, go get the quality strikers that we need to stay up!!
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On a completely different matter, did anyone else notice how ineffective we turned when we went 4-4-2??
Much better playing 4-5-1, Koren did very well shadowing everyone in the hole in front of the back 4 and Greening was always available playing further forward.
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knee injury jinx?
we’re hardly riddled. we had a clean bill of health saturday.
hopefully RB can pick up where he left off but IM was really pushing teams back lately, his come on well so its a sad loss. i think we should look to get 2 strikers in come Jan though. iv heard villa are after larsson now so thats it for any chance with us signing him.
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Again, a game that should have been out of sight before Pompey equalised. If Portsmouth are a ‘halfway up the League team’, how the heck are we languishing at the bottom?? I will admit to being a bit worried at the air of despondency that the players showed once their goal went in. With that last minute free kick we were given why did it take so long to decide who was kicking it, then a total lack of urgency or interest by the team?
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Disappointing as we need all the fit forwards we can get our hands on at the moment.
However, Miller has been poor of late and seemed to spend the vast majority of sundays match either off side or moaning because he can’t control the ball. Very poor display. How on earth he gets in the team ahead of Bedner when we play one up front i’ll never know. Bedner is a much better and more effective player than Miller. The difference once he came on was noticeable.
Hopefully this is the chance Moore needs to get a run in the team and score some goals…or at least play well.
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Hes no good anyway
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Yeah Dan it was noticeable…as soon as miller went off we never looked like scoring!
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At the top of the Wolves page is an Advert for a DVD called ‘Beating the Baggies.’ I checked it out, after all you don’t get too many DVD releases in black and white. The running time of the DVD is 0 minutes. It’s true, have a look. I’m getting on to Watchdog about it. It’s terrible to think of all those poor little Wulfies on Chistmas morning.
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Give Slusarski a chance !
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Miller has been our best forward for a number of games wheter bedner has played or not. However, now miller is out bedner and moore have a chance to keep him out for longer than 6 weeks lets how they take it
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10; I think you have enough problems of your own without getting all dewy eyed over others.
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Bad luck on Ishie, it’s now time
for Moore to step up to the plate
& show us what he can do with a start,
he looked sharp when he came on & showed
some nice touches,as for two up
front, we create more chances when we
have five across the middle.
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No2 The only way Moore could score a hat trick is if no one was in goal and he was one yard out ,then my money would be on him missing 2.Come on Moore Shake yourself up.
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I wonder if TM will bring Craig Beattie back from loan at C Palace to replace Ish ?
We need an Experienced Premier league striker up front someone to pull the pin in the opponets defence on loan I would go for Louis Boa Morte he is doing nothing at W Ham ?
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I think its strange that TM doesn’t give Moore a game. Surely the idea is that as a manager, you use players to put pressure on each other so that when they get on the pitch, they try harder. So, especially in away games, why not give Moore 30 or 45 minutes after all, when does he get the chance to get anywhere near match fit/Premiership fit if he only gets reserve games.
The same applies for Robbo. He never gets subb’d and Cech (spelling?) never has any chance to prove himself in the big game!
Same with Zuiverloon, Koren and others. Surely a good manager wants to keep players on their toes to see when/if they will lose their first team place and who to. Some of the players seem to be automatic choices. You could say that the subs are not up to the standard of the Prem but at least use them for some time in a match to give them experience and cause the regular first teamers to get a little bit nervous!! Also, I am not saying change them all at once/have them on at the same time in a match.
What do you think??
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Atmosphere was poor yesterday an i sit towards the back, people at the front need to get up more lol cheer them on, ok it wasnt the best game to watch an was quite frustrating when there were no urgency.
I think Moore should be given a start because to be honest coming on as a sub for 10mins if that, it takes time to adjust to the speed of the game (yesterday probably didnt take him long) so yeah i say Moore for a change an Lateef chap from reserves (didnt bother to try an write it)
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I see the odds on your premiership survival have actually shortened on this news
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I’m really sorry about the young mans injury. I hope he comes back soon.
Things look bleak for you guys but hopefully Mowbary will buy well in January but he will have to be very lucky to get someone capable of getting you sufficient goals to stay up.
I bet you lot could use Phillips now but how come all the goals you got from midfield last year have dried up?
Lets hope for midlands football’s sake we play you in the premiership next year.
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