[Archived] West Brom Preview

[tchocky]

We need a result now for so many reasons.

- give us some belief that we can play well AND win

- players' confidence

- stay safely away from the bottom

- find a player selection that works

- to better our goal difference

So expect a 4-0 win - positive thinking

[philipl]

Grella back, RSC out.

Kim Die Hohn back for Baggies.

According to the news wires.

[Ricky]

straight 4-4-2 no messing about.

Benni up front with eitehr Derbs or Roberts (might be worth playing Roberts as its one of his old clubs and players usually tend to score in those circumstances)

[ABBEY]

cmon ricky..4-4-2 your avin a larf.Theres no chance of it.

[gazsimm]

i am going for bore 0-0 draw, hope i am wrong though. team should be

Robinson

Simpson Oojier Samba Olssen

Emerton Grella Andrews Gamst

Roberts Benni

[philipl]

You have dropped Warnock for the timerity of actually scoring a goal from open play I see.

Carlos also punished.

[ABBEY]

2 up front?.....surly not Gaz.

[Ricky]

I know Abs, I'm dreaming of a 4-4-2 lol.

Just think it's time to get back to basics. Warnock back to left back and 2 strikers..... yes you heard me.... 2 STRIKERS!!!!!

[gazsimm]

You have dropped Warnock for the timerity of actually scoring a goal from open play I see.

Carlos also punished.

thought Warnock might be missing, if he is fit i would put him in instead Olssen ,as for Carlos yes i would leave him on the subs bench for this one, i think we need to go for 2 up front

2 up front?.....surly not Gaz.

i think we should Abbey yes, Roberts and Benni for me, carlos to be on bench

[Athlete]

Gaz I have to disagree with you on that one about a mid table finish being good.

We appear to be taking three steps backwards (maybe more some would say) to take a step forward.

Our team wasnt broken, it was established, it was hard to beat, good hard football capable of being played, the willingness for a fight, the stand up camaderie, the win at all cost 11 on the pitch, the shirt etc, I am sure you know what I mean.

Then we lose our manager, back room and two players, TWO PLAYERS one of whom is replaced by an ENGLAND KEEPER.

So, if my sums are right, that means we only really had to replace BENTLEY BIG GOB BUZZIN SUPERMAN.

Now, 8 weeks in the job or not (pre season kick off that is) Ince and co should really have made that their priority and on that point alone they appear to have failed miserably.

The midfield issues were NOT addressed adequately, although I do have to say I was impressed with Grella v Boro.

This current team know about fighting for results, it has been inbred into them for 2 years and more now.

So, can we or can someone please identify what the reason is for this aspect of Rovers play disappearing ?

Teams were frightened to death of Rovers now they cant wait to play us.

So now, for some to accept mid table mediocrity, a loss of prize money in the region of £5m maybe more, it beggars belief as acceptable. A £5m outlay on a top midfielder would have paid for itself, results might have been better and we might have been sitting pretty in 6th spot, wehre I may add I think we should be right now.

Our team is not a toy or plaything. This is serious business becasue we all realise that should Rovers ever go down, we are not going to get back again. That is the stark reality of relegation. In the Championship, we couldnt cope with the loss of our star players like we did when we came back up, crowds would virtually disappear again to the mid 15k range if we were lucky enough to sustain such support and we would gradually see the funds dry up.

28 games left of this season and Rovers manaement do not appear to have a clue as to what the best team is, the best formation or the tactical nouse to beat teams such as Boro, Bolton, Hull and the like, God knows what they will think next weekend when CFC and their allstars come to Ewood Park. May be for that game we will employ a 1-9-1 formation, you never know it might just work.

cound't agree more the best and most sensible post of the season so far well done !

[RevidgeBlue]

There cause is not being helped by noises coming out of the club that Roque Santa Cruz might want to leave and if they're in the bottom four come January I think they'll struggle to keep hold of him.

What noises are those exactly?

I know it's not beyond the realms of possibility he'll leave someday but the only"noises" coming out of the club have been that he's signed a new contract and is happy!

How do people get away with writing this crap? (Lawro not phil)

[jim mk2]

Hawthorns sell-out tomorrow - except for Rovers away end.

[G Somerset Rover]

Team News

From the official site: Roque and Ooijer out for definite tomorrow. Warnock faces a late fitness test.

On the plus, as Phil has said Grella hopes to return.

[RevidgeBlue]

We appear to be taking three steps backwards (maybe more some would say) to take a step forward.

Our team wasnt broken,

Been thinking about this "The team wasn't broken" thing a bit more overnight.

Imo, if you look at the senior squad Ince inherited the following:

Players on the downgrade: Friedel, Nelsen, Ooijer, Mokoena, Tugay, Reid, Vogel, MGP, Benni, Roberts.

Players on the upgrade: Warnock, Emerton, Samba, Bentley Roque, Derbyshire.

Players neither one nor the other: Dunn/Zurab.

So I think it's well wide of the mark to try and make out the squad just needed a bit of tinkering. Ince has quite a work in progress on his hands imo, especially if he isn't given a reasonable amount of funding to rebuild.

(Not blaming Hughes btw - he did a brilliant job despite a distinct lack of financial backing.)

[OJRovers]

Our team wasnt broken, it was established, it was hard to beat, good hard football capable of being played, the willingness for a fight, the stand up camaderie, the win at all cost 11 on the pitch, the shirt etc, I am sure you know what I mean.

I'm guessing you didn't see the last game of the season at Birmingham???

Not that i'm saying that Ince has fixed it (yet) but we need to remember that we were poor for most of the second half of last season.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Going to be interesting to see what team Ince puts out tomorrow. You would think with Roque out, Benni will continue up front with maybe Villanueva behind him again. We could see Benni maybe playing up front with someone like Roberts or Derbs as Ince may feel like playing two up front in order to try and help put away our chances. With Grella looking like he will be fit it will further add to Ince's selection headaches as Warnock, Emerton and Andrews are really competing for the places.

Its going to be hard to predict what side Ince will put out and the formation IMO.

[1864roverite]

Rev

Lets be serious here for a moment.

There is no doubt there is some validity in your post. Footballers are a novel type of sportsmen, they have good games, bad games and indifferent games. They fall out with the management and decide they dont want to play well, they bum up to the management and they play great.

There is also another scenario, players also react in a positive manner when new signings are brought into the club, and in some cases, I am sure they react negatively as well.

The likes of Mokoena clearly had something of a positive reaction because he played great at Everton and then had his face shoved out of the side. Nelsen also was injured last year and this season he has gradually gone back tohis best, Smaba has also improved along with warnock and Ooijer even if he has made a ew mistakes.

If Roves had brought a replacement for Bentley then for me the players would have reacted positively, far better than they had when PI was appointed.

At the moment there is no will to win at all costs in the team. There is a passing ethic but there is still something missing and that is the end result. Its no good having a midfielder having 3 shots that miss the target and then the excuse of WHAT IF etc? Rovers need an end result of the passing moves and in that comes the tactics and the substitutions which seem to have all been inappropriate in the games we have seen.

As for the Brum game last year. The biggest howler of them all int hat game was committed by Brad Friedel, he was at blame bg time and for me was the catalyst for the heavy defeat.

Another thing you mention about Hughes not being allowed to talk to Newcastle. I am fairly sure that NUFC released a statement of intent of wanting to speak to him but had been refused permission. It was at that point alone that Hughes spat his dummy and as JW has remarked on numerous times, it was at that point that HE started the ball rolling looking for Hughes's replacement. So that again suggests HE knew that Hughes was on his way out and why the club spend No money.

Things can only get better is the saying in football, for Rovers they have to otherwise the bubble bursts and we disappear into football oblivion.

[RoverRich]

I am not the biggest fan of Jason Roberts by any means but tomorrow we need him and Benni up front together. They are good mates and had a really good partnership at one stage so lets see if they can recapture their form, work together, help each other as well as the rest of the team and get the result everybody wants. It is probably unlikely that this will be the pairing that Ince goes for as it will probably be Carlos off Benni but I think it is what we need and would be best for the team. Like people are saying on here, no messing about, straight 4-4-2 and lets go for it. Team I would go for:

Robinson

Simpson Nelsen Samba Warnock

Emerton Grella Andrews Pedersen/Villanueva

McCarthy Roberts

That looks a fairly strong and well balanced team so I would love for it to actually be our starting XI tomorrow. Someone else mentioned the fact it is one of Roberts' old teams. Surely that will get him up for this game and make him want to score/cause plenty of problems and, with his mate Benni alongside him, damage could be caused.

[joey_big_nose]

Our team is musical chairs at the moment! Injuries and a lack of a definitive "best eleven" is making us look a bit transient.

I suppose we will be looking at something like this, although arguably Olsson, Roberts or Tugay could slip back into the team

----------------McCarthy

------------------Carlos

Pedersen------Andrews--------Emerton

------------------Grella

Warnock--Nelsen---Samba---Simpson

----------------Robinson

At some point we need to have two or three games with the same 11 starting.

Grella's inclusion could have a big impact I think, although we are going to lack pace and strength up front. I hope WBA haven't figured out that if they play with a high defensive line we won't be able to get behind them at all.

edit - actually on second thought I would drop Carlos for Roberts and then around the hour mark if things aren't going swimmingly I would change gear by bringing on the Chilean and Toogs at once. It would be hard for WBA to legislate for the change in approach that woud bring.

[RevidgeBlue]

At the moment there is no will to win at all costs in the team. There is a passing ethic but there is still something missing and that is the end result.

I agree with that, at the moment we're not mean enough in defence or clinical enough in front of goal. A potentially worrying combination.

I'm not sure we had that "will to win at all costs" in the latter two thirds of last season either though.

[philipl]

There is an LT interview with Ince in which he speaks at length about Warnock saying he will play at LB again at some point but intriguingly saying Warnock has played left midfield in the past.

If Grella is fit, I wouldn't be surprised to see Warnock, Grella, Andrews and Emerton appearing as the left to right quartet at the Hawthorns with Olsson returning at left back in place of Ooijer.

[RevidgeBlue]

There is an LT interview with Ince in which he speaks at length about Warnock saying he will play at LB again at some point but intriguingly saying Warnock has played left midfield in the past.

If Grella is fit, I wouldn't be surprised to see Warnock, Grella, Andrews and Emerton appearing as the left to right quartet at the Hawthorns with Olsson returning at left back in place of Ooijer.

I think they quite fancy Warnock in midfield. Mathias makes a comment that sometimes you only really find a player as a result of a switch in position.

[CrazyIvan]

There is an LT interview with Ince in which he speaks at length about Warnock saying he will play at LB again at some point but intriguingly saying Warnock has played left midfield in the past.

If Grella is fit, I wouldn't be surprised to see Warnock, Grella, Andrews and Emerton appearing as the left to right quartet at the Hawthorns with Olsson returning at left back in place of Ooijer.

Warnock himself has said he used to play in the centre and on the left of midfield for Liverpool until his leg got broken, he was then switched to left back.

[Amo]

Warnock also played left-midfield on-loan at Coventry.

Robinson

Simpson Nelsen Samba Warnock

Emerton Grella Andrews Pedersen/Villanueva

McCarthy Roberts

I agree with that line-up, but I'd like to see Zurab in the side. I'd also choose Pedersen over Villanueva. I think the Chilean would be a great sub to bring on as the game wears down.

[RoverRich]

I'd like to see Zurab in the side. I'd also choose Pedersen over Villanueva. I think the Chilean would be a great sub to bring on as the game wears down.

I would like to see Zurab being given a chance as well but lets face it, it isn't gonna happen anytime soon unless we get a defensive injury crisis unfortunately. The earliest we will probably get to see him is against Sunderland in the cup and even then it is not guaranteed he will be given a run out.