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Albion blog: Will we survive?
Friday 13th February 2009, 9:21AM GMT.
Albion blogger Jarrod Hill asks all Baggies fans the ultimate question as the team take a break from action this weekend.
With no game to dissect this week, I have decided to ask all Baggies fans the ultimate question. The big question, will our beloved Albion stay in the Premier League?
So let’s take a look at the pros and cons. The recent defeat against Newcastle highlighted our biggest current problem – injuries.
Manager Tony Mowbray has struggled all season to field his strongest eleven and although injuries are a problem for all teams, the fact is we have suffered more than most.
At one stage we didn’t even have a fully fit centre half and with our best defender Jonas Olsson currently injured, our defence has looked our biggest worry.
Behind them young England goalkeeper Scott Carson’s form has been some what erratic. He can be brilliant one moment then commit a basic error the next, and his form has had an effect on the defensive unit in front of him.
Another aspect that affects our defensive capabilities is the continued absence of a defensive minded midfielder.
Against teams who have a football purist approach, we cope well and have gathered excellent wins against Middlesbrough, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, and West Ham.
But when facing the more physical teams of the division, we have often been susceptible to being caught on the break. Yet Mowbray has continued to pursue transfer targets that fit into his football model. He will ultimately be judged on what he achieves.
Mowbray would be well within his rights to point at the fact we have the lowest wage bill in the Premier League, the lowest record transfer fee, a club which is run within our means and our funds have come from generated income.
But the fact is we are bottom of the league and survival will depend on us producing a set of results that betters three other clubs.
So onto the positives, as many of you know I was extremely critical of our transfer dealings last summer regarding our striking department – or lack of them.
But with the recent loan signings of Jay Simpson and Marc Antoine Fortune, Mowbray has forged together a strike partnership that looks capable of competing and scoring goals at this level. If only we had acquired their services last summer, I honestly believe we would be a good 10 points better off.
If we can combine our attacking prowess with a more no-nonsense defensive set up, we can get the points needed and a large part of us being able to do this is by getting and keeping our key players fit.
Our physio and fitness coach have as big a part to play in the remainder of our season as anyone else.
Our fixtures are another reason to be hopeful, we do not have to play Chelsea, Manchester United, or Aston Villa again this season. In fact the only two big teams left to play are Liverpool and Arsenal, and both of those games are at home.
My gut feeling is that it will go right down to the wire and we do have players in the squad who have been through this before. As we sing, we’ve done it before we`ll do it again. In fact the last time we survived the fans played their part and we need to ensure we all stay united towards our goal.
So can we, will we, do it again?
I really can’t call it and lets face it, it just wouldn’t be Albion unless it was nerve jinglingly unpredictable!
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Yes, no, yes, I mean no……maybe?!
I don’t know!!
Other teams keep doing us favours by not picking up points, but the last time I felt we were sure to go down was after the Sunderland match and we went on to find a good bit of form after that which has given us a chance of staying up.
Injuries need to clear quickly and we need to play players in their best positions.
Koren is a central midfielder, not a right winger or left winger for example.
If we can get Greening, Olsson and Simpson fit sooner rather than later we have a much better chance.
My one ray of hope came from watching Spain on Wednesday night.
A midfield packed full of hobbit proportioned creative players dominated England, but they had the assurance of a fantastic ball winner in Senna all the time too. (What I’d give to have him at the Albion).
If the Albion adopt this approach and play Mulumbu for the rest of the season we WILL stay up.
Keep the faith boys and girls and keep supporting the team. It’s times like these that we are needed more than ever.
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morning bomber. the ludicrous part of our situation, is that it is quite possible to finish 13th or 14th, and to also finish bottom. A couple of weeks ago i said that we were the only team with our tails up,and as a consequence i really thought we would do it. Provided the newcastle game was only a blip, then yes we will stay up,but we need these two wks to get fit,organised and ready, yes we will score more goals im sure of that, but we will need to eradicate what at best can only be described as parks football defending
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Great blog—bang on.Its going to be bum squeaky time again but as long as TM picks our best side and does not play anyone who is not 100% fit and the referees are kind to us and the Gods smile on us and our Carson gets his confidence back—I hope yes.
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Interesting thoughts as ever Bomber. If I describe a team with a good keeper but with frequent mistakes, a defence conceding too many goals, a midfield not creating enough and forwards who will usually score but maybe not enough to win a match am I describing the Baggies or the Wolves or both?
You would think that after recent results you would have been cut adrift at the botton and we would be tumbling down the table but neither are true, but this will not last. Other teams will not continue to help us and we must look after ourselves. Six wins for you will see you safe, mabe one or two more than that for us will see us in the promised land. We both seem capable of scoring during the rest of the season but we must cut out out the mistakes at the back.
I think and hope we can both do it and then we can do battle again for real next season where we both should be.
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Before the Hull and Newcastle games, I would definitely have said yes because many of the defensive problems seemed to have reduced (despite the injuries) and we have made some quality loan signings up front. But the last two league games, against very poor opposition, have shown just how important the ability to battle and grind out results will be in the last third of the season & we have been very sadly lacking.
From the players we have (when fit), we could still get away with a midfield four of Teixira, Grrening, Koren & Morrison if they go into the game with the right attitude and the defenders (and goalkeeper) behind them cut out the individual errors, but I tend to agree with Bomber that it will go right down to the wire & Blackburn away as the last game is not a place to be playing pretty football.
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Im going to say no. I dont think we will make europe.
Yes we have won some key games but we have not followed those up. Are their 3 teams worse than us???
We may have a low wage bill but we have still spent more money than before (plus more than hull and stoke) on the wrong sort of players. Instead of buying a midfield of umpa lumpas we needed a hard man ball winner to do the ugly stuff. We didnt need kim or valero. We also never replaced phillips of gera, we can argue all day whether phillips would have delivered at this level but i feel he would have contributed some points and some vital goals. Also gera was a huge loss, he was excellent in the air, full of determination and defended the right hand side well protecting the full back. Add to this his vital goals.
Squad choices have hindered us to, players like cech have performed well and been dropped. The startimg eleven has been negative for long spells this season, a 5 man midfield without a ball winner doenst balance, and we havent got the players to dominate teams and finish them off. 2 up front works better as highlighted by our 3 wins at home.
Also a number of players havent performed as well as expected at this level. Meite, robbo, carson, brunt to name a few.
Morrison and olson have been excellent, we have missed a fit tex, and millers pace and power was an extra dimension.
It will be difficult to stay up and a few away wins are vital as well as continued home form and eradicate these silly mistakes.
If we win every game between now and the ned of the season i feel WE CAN MAKE EUROPE
That was the question wasnt it?
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Very interesting Premiership this season. Very poor towards the bottom and more teams than ever have been dragged into the relegation battle. I ultimately think it will be Albion, Middlesbrough and either stoke, hull or bolton. You leak goals and Mowbray is to blame for not bringing in enough premiership experienced players, but DO NOT sack him.
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Hi Jarrod.
Good points. I posted on a previous article about Dan Harris. He’s been saying that most clubs have suddenly got lots of injuries, not true. I think Newcastle are the only other club with anything like the amount we have and I would reiterate that Blues were in the same position when he was there. This bloke talks a good fight.
I think it’s no coincidence that Scott Carsons dip in form came when Jonas Olssen was out, he seems to have no confidence in his defence, with good reason. The defence are also missing Jonno, not for his tackling ability but because of his calming influence when he picks the ball up and brings it away (take note all of you crab knockers, you don’t appreciate what you’ve got until it’s not there.)
I agree with 1.Ned. We need wherever possible to play our best players in their best positions although as I’ve said before we must also allow the manager to manage.
Can we stay up? I’ve sort of started to resign myself to going down even though I don’t think we will. Let’s hope after this break we’ll kick on. Whatever happens we’ll get behind the lads and be back next season. Redundancies allowing.
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At the moment i would say a big NO to staying up, until Mowbray changes his tactics, we show clubs too much respect intead of playing to our strengths, we continually play one striker up front, which to me shows the opposition that we may be content with a draw and do not intend having a go at them, we cannot defend when we play like this, we need to have a go at teams, most people think we are already down so lets say BALLS TO IT, lets have a go at teams, play two up front and lets just go at teams, it’s what got us promoted last year, and then at the end of the season if we do go down then at least we can say that we had a go and weren’t frightened to have a go. A word to Mowbray, concentrate on our team, pick the best players we have on the day and have a bloody go!!
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6 Lukey.
Yoer point about Gera suggests that we could have kept him. I don’t think this was the case, Fulham were offering to double his wages. Yes we could have matched this for him as a one off but it would have meant doing the same for most of the squad which we couldn’t afford to do. Possibly KP was a similar case. Do you think that JP and TM wanted to lose Gera and Phillips?
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9 Klunk.
Don’t know if you realise how patronising to Tony Mowbray your post sounds? Do you really think that he doesn’t understand any of this?
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great blog jarred,,,you can never say its boring being a baggie,,theres always excitement of some sorts,,i agree if we had simpson and fortune at the start we would be in a better position than we are right now,,mowbray has to start playing all the quality players we have instead of leaving some on the bench like cech etc,,the biggest if is getting our back four fit and settled,,this i believe will determine whether we stand any chance at all of staying up,,get our defence right and we will stand a chance,,,mr mowbray you have alot of hard work and decisions to make,,,lets give it our best…………STAYING IN THE PREM THE MOWBRAY WAY,,OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH YES.
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Drop:
CARSON
ROBINSON
This is so blindingly obvious, we all see the 2 weak links and this would certainly help especially be replacing them with Kiely and Cech, it is very stubborn of Mowbray, is he related to mick mc carthy?
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It isn’t just about the Baggies gaining enough points, it is also about three or four other teams who might replace us in the bottom three.
Southgate’s lot are unpredictable, Pompey is now an unknown, and Stoke continue to flatter to deceive. Two of these teams we play again; Stoke is a bogey team and as Bomber says ‘physical’.
Depending on their position on the last day, Blackburn could be this season’s Pompey
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11 The real bully Hoo,
To be honest i dont think that by the teams and tactics Mowbray decides on, he does notactually realise or understand any of this, otherwise he would have changed his tactics by now, he should have gone at Newcastle form the off but chose not to WHY? they were there to be beaten but he did not give us the best chance of doing so by being so negative.
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I have supported the Baggies since 1960 and it hurts to say it . Newcastle Utd was the yardstick no more than 28 points for the season and we will finish in bottom place. The Championship is were ALBION are most comfortable, on the field of play and the Boardroom in my view. Next time we come up make sure you do your homework on the premier league to the power’s that be.
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While it is still possible, I have to say yes.
In my opinion, if the Braggies go down, it will be an injustice not only to the fans, but to football itself. I know there are flaws in the play, but when the Braggies are in full flow, their football is a joy to watch.
Good Luck
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It’s a tough league and you did well at the start but now there just isnt 3 teams who are going to finish below you,sorry…see you next year…yes we’re not gonna make it either.
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13. LaughingWolf
I’d like to see that too.
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9 and 15 – Klunk
To recognise Mwbrays 4-5-1 formation as negative shows a lack of football understanding. 4-5-1 is not a negative formation when you have Valero, Brunt, Morrison all adding to the attack. I believ Mowbrays ideal formation is 4-5-1 with attack minded midfielders supporting the striker, and THAT is not negative.
When someone like Gary Megson or Bryan Robson play a 4-5-1 – it’s negative, with defensive and holding midfielders aplenty.
See it all boils down to how the system is played, not just number of players in what position. We had a go against Newcastle 1st and 2nd half – but we can’t defend, nothing to do with the forward players.
Now, did that sound patronising? I do hope so.
P.S – are you Tony Butler in disguise?
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Aorther thought kindling blog jarrod.I feel that we lack a foot in type midfielder to help take the pressure off the back line,for me ifeel that we are to light weight and lack a phyical presence hpoefully we will survive and remedy this situation,i think that we are only a couple of players short from being able to compete next season with teams in the mid table positions this will of course depends on the finance of the club, which we know is run very prudently J.P.has had his share of fans knocking him for this but youve only got to look at other clubs to see how close they are to be going out of business our club and its history must come first.with mogga i feel weve avery forward looking leader who must be given the time to operate his plans given financial constrates he has to work with.I to feel that it could go down to the last game because we are not out of it yet…THE CLUBS IN SAFE HANDS WITH JP&MOGGA…YOUVE SEEN THE LIGHT NOW KEEP THE FAITH…DONE IT BEFORE AND WELL DO IT AGAIN…
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16 Chippy.
Ah the memories that name bring back, my first ‘bad boy’ hero.
Let’s face it, it’s not about preparation, it’s about money. Money to buy and pay the players you need and money to have a squad of enough quality players. People can blame JP all they want but he simply doesn’t have the sort of money needed to bankroll us. Look at Blues, two owners both individually much richer than JP and they struggle and yoyo the same as us. Unless a very rich sugardaddy comes in we’re much better off with JP than without him. Financially we are a championship club punching above our weight but some of these big spenders are about to come down with a bump. Watch this space.
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13 LW.
The fact that this is so obvious to you, convinces me that we should stick with Carson and Robbo. A very good goalkeeper and the best left back we’ve got.
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hate to say it this stage of the season reminds me of the 2005/2006 season where is the next win coming from
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how can we compete in the premier with one hand behind our backs ALL the time,are we just destined to be championship fodder?
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The real bully who, gera is on 30 grand a week at fulham, kanu was on 31 grand basic here 3 years ago. Could we have paid that, yes. Also klunk, suggesting that 4-5-1 is negative does not show a lot of football knowledge. I havent got a degree in football but i can see our 5 man midfield gets overun by most teams with 4 midfielders, we dont score more goals, we havent won many matches with 4-5-1 and we havnt got many draws either. Our midfield doesnt possess the quality. If your suggesting 4-5-1 to accomadate valero then you have a floored view of wba.
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16. Chippy. Thanks for your ridiculous comment. You clearly are clueless when it comes to financial acumen. JP has one of the best business brains of all the Chairmen in the Premiership. We have NO debt and yet we don’t have the resources of many of the teams who are bank-rolled by rich owners. By the way, such an approach hasn’t worked for M’boro, Spurs or Portsmouth who are the latest team to be in financial difficulty.
As the Real Bully rightly says, we are punching above our weight and long may it continue.
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Jarrod,
Nice thoughts, and I do feel that half of the players we have are good enough to stay up.
The challenge in recent times as we have fought back into the pack though, is that we just can’t seem to keep them on the pitch.
That means currently I sit 45% Yes, 55% No.
I agree that we may have the lowest wage bill, yet, we also seem to have played the most players!
Having a settled side really does help, particularly so when your backs are to the wall.
That said, I’m still pretty optimistic; get the better players back in, find that settled side, get a head of steam up (especially away), keep up the fantastic support.
Do these things, and, well, that Black Country Derby that we & our close “fiends” (woops, “fRiends”) both salivate for, could well be back on.
If we believe strongly enough in it, so it shall be …
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we cant get a settled side because we are allways replacing one bad player for another its a catch 22 situation
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Everyone should believe
We can make europe
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Lets have faith and lets hope we do survive although its certainly going to be a very tough task for us to do it again.
Get Behind the Boys, and that includes you who sit in the Halfords and Brummie and East, wakey wakey
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ask me in 2 wiks aye boing boing donk
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This is the best squad we have ever had,just look
at our midfeild options TEIXEIRA,MORRISON,KOREN,
MENSEGUEZ,MULUMBU,DORRANS,VALERO,GREENING.
If Tony Mowbray keeps selecting players like
Brunt and Kim then the Albion are going down.
THE BAGGIES HAVE THE PLAYERS SO WE JUST NEED
MR KITKAT MAN! TO PLAY THEM!
A midfeild 4 of:
Teixeira,Koren,Mulumbu,Morrison.
for Fulham match would be nice!
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Lukeyboy and Klunk.
All of these theories probably work a treat on Championship Manager and Fanstasy Football but TM and JP have to work with real people and real money in the real world. Don’t know how long you have been supporting the club but if it’s more than ten years you will realise that this is probably the best management team we’ve had in living memory. I will however bow to Cyril on this statement.
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reading some of the comments on this page,fully agree with some of them but a few does make me smile.ive not got rose tinted glasses or navy blue eyes.those of you do attend the matches at the baggies will agree we are far from the worst team in the prem.newcastle are up there with pompy man city hull as very poor teams.yes newcastle hull beat us, ithought newcastle were in a false postion, no there not my tip to go down. we will stay up.full fit squad we will stay up.
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My comments never made it on this topic. I will admit I did make a back reference to a certain ref who was with us about 2 to 3 weeks ago, but I didn’t use a rude word, only a few ‘stars’ *****
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31. Totaly agree mate
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