West Brom's Hawthorns hoodoo?

I think my nephew Noah best summed up Saturday's disappointing loss against Norwich when he said "I watched that game a couple of weeks ago", writes West Brom blogger Jarrod Hill.

Out of the mouths of babes, his observation as we left the East Stand was spot on and I told him maybe he should start writing the blog. Another game against Norwich that we dominated without creating enough chances to score the goals that would have won us the game. Another game we have lost in the last ten minutes due to not being able to see out games we are drawing, and another game we have lost at home, all adds to the frustration felt around the Hawthorns at the moment.

The first surprise of the day was the team sheet. The first choice back four were all rested and with Jara and Mattock installed as our two fullbacks my pessimism started to emerge. Joe Mattock has never convinced me, however I was prepared to be proven wrong, and I fully understood why Roy decided to rest key players with two tough games coming up this week.

After watching Mattock on Saturday I hope Jeremy Peace realises that Roy needs some reinforcements. We lack cover at left back, and Mattock is no more a Premier League defender than I am. I don't want to sound reactionary to another home loss and we certainly don't need any knee jerk decisions to be made. But we have known for ages that Nicky Shorey needs someone who can act as cover and provide competition for his left back slot. One day to go and unless we meet Birmingham's valuation of Liam Ridgewell at some time during the next few hours we will be looking at struggling through until the end of he season.

The talk of a home hoodoo is providing cover for the real reasons why we are struggling to win games at the Hawthorns. I have read all sorts of theories ranging from the size of the pitch to some blaming the fans.

In my opinion two basic things have hampered us at home. Firstly individual errors, Craig Dawson being the most recent, but he has joined a list including Ben Foster, Chris Brunt, James Morrison, Youssouf Mulumbu and Paul Scharner who have all sloppily gifted visitors' goals this season. I do have some sympathy for young Dawson as he had played well up until the point he gifted Norwich an undeserved winner. But his sloppy play followed Morrison gifting Norwich a throw in and before that Joe Mattock gifting possession to our opponents for the umpteenth time.

Roy can coach formations, set pieces and team shape all day every day, but if players continue to make individual errors what can he do?

Our other problem at home as I see it is our balance of attack. We go through the same process of play nine times out of ten when attacking. The ball gets moved throughout our back four, it then goes wide, eventually we get Jerome Thomas on the ball and he attacks the box. Although I see JT as our best wide attacker, due to the slowness of getting the ball to him he rarely gets behind his full back and his crosses are met by a defence that has everyone back behind the ball. Coupled with the fact we are still not committing midfielders getting into the box our attacks are too often snuffed out with a clearing header. It all adds up to an attack that is far too predictable, and we need to mix it up.

Opposing teams have simply sat back and soaked up the pressure because it is all being played in front of them. We just don't get behind defences anywhere near as much as we need to, and we must realise that sometimes an early long ball behind a defence will suit players like Peter Odemwingie, Jerome Thomas and Shane Long. Chris Brunt has so often been the player to deliver defence splitting passes and I concede that we are missing his ability on the ball. But our style of play whilst in possession certainly isn't helping our creativeness.

As you read this blog the clock will be ticking down on transfer deadline day and although I do not feel as desperate as I have in recent seasons to see people arrive, certain positions do need looking at. Left back we have already mentioned and the injuries to Zoltan Gera and Chris Brunt have robbed us of two wide players.

Morrison has spoken out over the weekend of his own frustration at our perceived lack of ambition. I would hope his own feelings do not reflect those of the rest of the players and his outburst seems ill timed. He was our captain on Saturday and as a senior member of the squad comments such as these should be kept internal.

The majority of fans understand that our club is run on a strict fiscal financial policy, and we only spend what we can afford to. We all have ambition, the fans, the players, the management, but that has to be tempered with a little realisation.

The fact is I do hope the club manage to strengthen the squad today, I will be watching with great interest.

Up the Baggies.