Back from the game - WBA (a)

[Barry the bird boggler]

Good 1st half, crap second so same old story - nice to see we're learning

Another failure of the management to spot the space being left for Thomas and get someone to do something about it when it was blindingly obvious.

Slightly felt sorry for Cummings who was right royally (see what I did there?) stitched up by other players and the management for not getting someone to sit in front of him or someone to man mark Thomas...

The total lack of leadership from a team that BR has stated is full of leaders and winners is unforgiveable.

Only Karacan and Cisse were plus points.

World class manager, world class tactics and lots of players who would struggle in Sunday morning football.

[Man Friday]

I've just been watching WBA's first goal. I've been studying it on pause mode. The striker still had a lot to do after he flipped it over Fed. At one stage Cummings was favourite to get to the flipped-over ball first but the WBA striker simply had more determination. Watch it carefully yourselves and see what you think. It's not immeditaely obvious. It confirms that, apart from better tactics, we need better and more determined players. As has been said, this is a relegation team.

[Madstad to Nadderud]

Yep, we are living in the 1990s TB1 and TB2 all over again.

[SLAMMED]

By the way, good to see everyone sitting down and having a thoroughly shit time.

At least we were there...

[SLAMMED]

Panaramic pic of The Hawthorns

Spotted: Rex giving the finger.

[Ian Royal]

Thats not the point, it was put in and it was dealt with poorly. With your logic there is no point having a goalkeeper then because the defence and midfield should be able to retain posession

Federici is not our weakest position - but needs to buck his ideas up. There is no point making 4/5 class saved then dropping one into your own net and throwing it all away.

No the point is he has shown he is a very capable keeper, but when he's being bombarded from all sides and the rest of the team is useless he's going to get caught out eventually.

Sort out the team in front of him and you'll see the mistakes in his game drop away as he gets more confidence in the team and himself and has fewer nightmare situations to deal with.

[RoyalBlue]

Its not our biggest weakness no - but if you are going to let shots like federici let in against sheff utd, come charging of your line and missing a back pass like today - on top of flapping at crosses and having them volleyed into the back of the net, you need to be replaced. Infact, they were shooting from 40 yards in the end they thought he was such a weakness.

Get rid of the stupid pass and there is no first goal.

You expect good keepers to be able to deal sensibly with stupid passes, not make completely the wrong decision and come racing out like a lunatic. I'm afraid that, despite at times making great saves, Federici seems to make too many wrong decisions and too many mistakes to be an automatic first choice at this level. Doesn't mean he won't become a really good keeper but it's probably not the time and the place for him to be developing in the role of No1.

And btw, good teams are usually built around very good keepers (look what happened when we signed USA at his prime) - to say that sort the rest of the team out and he will be fine, to me is completely the wrong approach. The team have to have complete and utter confidence in their keeper.

[Ian Royal]

Well you have you're opinion and I have mine. By far the easier problem to solve is the team in front of him.

[winchester_royal]

Mills was good as well I thought. He may well prove to be the best thing to come out of the Rodgers legacy.

[SLAMMED]

Mills was good as well I thought. He may well prove to be the best thing to come out of the Rodgers legacy.

Especially if his missus attends more games.

[winchester_royal]

Mills was good as well I thought. He may well prove to be the best thing to come out of the Rodgers legacy.

Especially if his missus attends more games.

[Wimb]

Can't believe I missed Rigby, didn't know she was shagging Mills.

Good day out, nice enough ground through the concourse was a bit small. Got a cracking hotdog just outside the ground as well for £2.20, beats paying £3.90 for a smaller one inside.

As others have said, there was something about singing 'how shit must you be you're only winning 2-1' and then at the end (after most had left) 'how shit must you be we've had a shot' that made the whole crapness feel worth it in a bizarre way, some sense of why you go to football afterall, win or lose its a good day out

I won't bother with ratings but I thought Cisse had a good game as did Ivar and Kebe wasn't shite (though he wasn't that good)

Cummings was woeful beyond belief, every single time the ball went down our right I feared the worst and so it proved. I'd rather have an unfit Gunnar at right back then him or just put bloody Kelly there. I also remember Karacan was playing there in Sweden so maybe he can have a go?

Fed made some amazing saves though did cost us at least 1 goal (and nearly got lobbed near the end from 40 yards) but he's not really the problem, his distribution is still good and he seems fine with crosses and shot stopping etc.

My only other gripe was Howard blazing over in the final minute when a 3-2 WBA win would have won me £25

Rodgers wasn't really to blame for that today as much as I was cursing him as I left the ground. It wasn't his fault that we conceded two stupid goals, or that McAnuff missed a glorious chance to have us take a firm grip on the game(as he did at Preston too)

Ordinarily if this match had been played out during the first months of last season you might have just dismissed it as a top 6 team coming back from a goal down and route a clearly inferior team but our recent form has this blown out of proportion. Who honestly had this down as more then a point at best going into the season.

Overall disappointing and more questions then answers, my only hope is that Rodgers and the players learn from this. If they learn valuable lessons from losing away at top 6-10 sides then I'll be happy if it translates to wins at home and draws away at places like QPR.

[working class hero]

Actually, the backpass from mcanuff was absolutely, ridiculously shite - what an earth are you doing even thinking about passing it back from there you retard? As for federici - piss poor running out that far and missing the backpass, atrocious. Between the two w**kers they should refund the cost of tickets to those reading fans. Federici was crap for the third as well so dellor was right, I was actually in support of him until I saw those goals. New keeper needed please.

If you'd been at the game you'd have seen Fed make 4 world class saves to keep us in the game. GK is not our problem.

No point in 4 world class saves if you also let in 2 soft goals. We lose whether he makes good saves or not.

[Kitson12]

Actually, the backpass from mcanuff was absolutely, ridiculously shite - what an earth are you doing even thinking about passing it back from there you retard? As for federici - piss poor running out that far and missing the backpass, atrocious. Between the two w**kers they should refund the cost of tickets to those reading fans. Federici was crap for the third as well so dellor was right, I was actually in support of him until I saw those goals. New keeper needed please.

If you'd been at the game you'd have seen Fed make 4 world class saves to keep us in the game. GK is not our problem.

No point in 4 world class saves if you also let in 2 soft goals. We lose whether he makes good saves or not.

He let in one soft goal, the other two, not his fault.

[Compo's Hat]

Most things i could say have been already covered (some of you are a bit generous with the ratings i feel) previously on this thread. After taking the lead we decided to counter a lot more rather than trying to retain the ball better and the midfield was too soft in 50/50 challenges leaving our defence to be tested too much. The two defenders who stayed back for our corner for the equaliser both on the left marking the Albion attacker when perhaps one of them could of been more central and not of got us into the mess that we did. At half time you had the feeling the writing was on the wall and so it was, should of been more really it was that poor. While Albion were quick with thier passing, our players stop, look up and then decide (or not decide) to do something rather than trying to move the ball quickly.

We don't really look like scoring and it says it all when Mills is our top scorer. A female mate of mine also reckons Long (who she really fancies) has put on weight. Glad i've decided to go lower tier Tuesday, not paying anymore than i have to in order to watch RFC and my sitting on the fence stance on the Rodgers debate is seriously in danger of changing.

Quick mention about The Vine pub which does some brilliant kebabs which i highly recommend.

[brendywendy]

thought fed was to blame for the 3rd too
and awful for the 1st-unforgiveable


oh for a steady keeper......like marcus

[handbags_harris]

After a bright start, utterly atrocious. No idea up front and vulnerable defensively. When we take a lead we never look like keeping it. More changes from the Championship's tinkerman, and more clueless play from RFC. Federici cost us two goals, the defence looked, at times, as though they didnt know what to do - twice caught out by a simple long ball over the top, one where Ingimarsson could very easily have been sent off, the midfield offered precious little creativity or defensive help, and the forwards just aren't up to the job of a lone front man. West Brom had better players in almost every position, and it showed. We are currently not a very good side.

Opening goal - decent ball in, West Brom's soft centre exposed. Routine goal.
Equaliser - dreadful play from both McAnuff, Federici, and Bertrand. Quite what McAnuff was doing is beyond me, ditto that for Federici, and looking at it again Bertrand couldn't be bothered to track back, even if it turned out to be a vain attempt to recover the situation. You don't just give up, credit to Cummings on that score at least.
3rd goal - awful play between Howard and Cisse, where was Cummings in relation to Thomas? Ruthless exposing of a poor defence.
4th goal - routine ball in, Federici comes, misses, out of position, looped over his head, goal. Great finish, but poor defensive play in the build up.

NOT VERY GOOD.

[strap]

Mills was good as well I thought. He may well prove to be the best thing to come out of the Rodgers legacy.

Well the Tommy Burns model is alive and well here then! If I buy 44 players in 18 months, chances ar I'll get a couple of decent ones (Murty and Forster).

[handbags_harris]

Mills was good as well I thought. He may well prove to be the best thing to come out of the Rodgers legacy.

Well the Tommy Burns model is alive and well here then! If I buy 44 players in 18 months, chances ar I'll get a couple of decent ones (Murty and Forster).

What was wrong with Andy Gurney?

[Kitson12]

thought fed was to blame for the 3rd too
and awful for the 1st-unforgiveable


oh for a steady keeper......like marcus

The first wasn't his fault, if you were at the game you would have seen that he was sold short by McAnuff, the third however I agree, was his poor positioning to blame.