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West Brom Build Up Thread


Roger

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Agreed, I would not be surprised to see Virgil on the bench for WBA, and I'm not even sure Wanyama will be on the bench. I would expect Ronald will like to keep faith in the team that performed so well against Norwich, and will want Virgil and Jose to train more together first before he is put in to the firing line. It would be very harsh on Yoshida to drop him as well.

 

have they even trained together with virgil away with holland and then jose with portugal?

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Was just chatting to a bloke who coaches at Oxford, they basically had a bunch of kids playing for them. He was very proud of their team for putting in a great performance against a comparatively strong Saints team.

 

He was also praising the facilities at Staplewood and said the pitches were as good as any he's ever seen.

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Gutted that Bertrand won't be fit to play. Will have to watch another horrifying display from Targett. Would rather Yoshida is put out to left back.

His last display was far from horrifying. If you are gutted and think that his displays are horrifying you need to brace yourself. I think it will be a wee while yet before Bertrand returns to the team. Based on nothing other than that he is apparently not training yet it will probably be at least another 3 weeks, maybe more.

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And don't tell me, you think Steve Davis should never wear a Saints shirt again and JWP is the next Gerrard.

 

I think neither of those things, just know that if we are to be a top half Premier League side, Yoshida can't be starting for us week in and week out.

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Was just chatting to a bloke who coaches at Oxford, they basically had a bunch of kids playing for them. He was very proud of their team for putting in a great performance against a comparatively strong Saints team.

 

He was also praising the facilities at Staplewood and said the pitches were as good as any he's ever seen.

 

It was Oxford's development squad.

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Did you watch the Norwich game? He kept Redmond at bay all game.

 

Yeah, some people aren't prepared to give any credit based on preconceptions of what players are like. I find it really tedious, if Yoshida plays well, I'm happy to say it - even if I think he's a liability some of the time he's still ok against bottom sides most of the time.

 

Targett hasn't been outright "bad" in really, he has however been exposed by a lack of midfield cover on occasion, and clearly doesn't offer an attacking option which seems to frustrate a lot of people.

 

I wouldn't be massively surprised to see us go with a back 5 again OR maybe to see a back 4 with Yoshida instead of Targett. Given the shutout at Watford and the availability of a "better" defender I think the 5 may be on the cards. Could even be Yoshida-Van Dijk-Fonte-Caulker-Cedric which is both defensive and has an attacking side (well, one side).

 

I think the number of defenders may also depend on whether Wanyama is selected. He and Romeu could allow a back 4, without him a back 5 seems fairly inevitable as we probably won't play away the way we did at home to Norwich. Then again, JWP will probably come back from U21s confident... sooooooo, lots of variables for this one. :D

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I think he'll play, he's match fit, he's a decent footballer and it's arguably the 'easiest' of the next three fixtures, get him in the team!

We have some attractive attacking options but I wouldn't be surprised to see a 5-4-1 away at a Pullis side.

Intrigued to see if VW plays, I think he won't.

 

0-1 Pelle, we'll score from a set piece.

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We are so used to having full back's who play high and bomb forward (Clyne, Bertrand, Shaw, even Fox and Richardson in times gone by), that having a more 'defensive' full back in Targett has been foreign to us so far this season. I can see why people wouldn't favour him as our left back because it's not 'our style' really, but he is nowhere near as bad as people make out as Shance pointed out above. He has unfortunately been put in the Yoshida bracket of 'groan every time he doesn't produce a perfect piece of play', whilst other players get away with far bigger errors without any criticism from the crowd whatsoever, and i've found over the years that it's very difficult for a player to shake that off once they've got it sadly.

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Target crossing ability is atrocious which isn't helpful when our system requires full backs to provide width and supply. Hoping koeman has positive news on bertrand.

 

His ctossing is actually good, usually prob is Pelle too slow to get onto it. Its his defensive ability that is questionable. Usually because he gets caught out too far forward after his attacking runs.

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His ctossing is actually good, usually prob is Pelle too slow to get onto it. Its his defensive ability that is questionable. Usually because he gets caught out too far forward after his attacking runs.

 

When his crosses usually smash into the first defender, Pelle isn't going to get near them.

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His ctossing is actually good, usually prob is Pelle too slow to get onto it. Its his defensive ability that is questionable. Usually because he gets caught out too far forward after his attacking runs.

 

Could not disagree more with this. His crossing has been pants, I remember one in particular against Midgetland (I think) when under no pressure at all he shanked it straight into the Northam.

 

Also, thought he actually did quite well defensively against Redmond

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Could not disagree more with this. His crossing has been pants, I remember one in particular against Midgetland (I think) when under no pressure at all he shanked it straight into the Northam.

 

Also, thought he actually did quite well defensively against Redmond

 

Agree. His crossing is an absolute joke, no pace and more often than not into the stands. To blame Pelle makes it even more laughable.

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His ctossing is actually good, usually prob is Pelle too slow to get onto it. Its his defensive ability that is questionable. Usually because he gets caught out too far forward after his attacking runs.

 

Nah, Targett's crossing has been sub-par on the occasions he even gets that far forward. They're usually overhit long or he just doesn't find a teammate with a low ball.

 

Interesting to note that when the ball is on the right Pelle often makes his early run (and recently we've got better at shifting the ball to him early instead of checking inside and dribbling into trouble instead), but he never makes attacking runs diagonally to the near post towards the left wing. I assume that's because his right foot is stronger so he thinks he can angle the ball in more accurately from the near post (e.g. his deft jumping lob that Howard saved at Goodison last season, his near post goal from Mane's pass against Norwich), but it's too technical for his weaker foot to do the same when short of the near post on the left.

 

Targett's crossing is not a patch on Tadic's for instance, which Koeman pretty much illustrated by bringing Tadic on in Midtjylland as we weren't getting anywhere despite Targett getting the time and space to cross plenty of times. Tadic's first couple of efforts were much better and provided more of a threat, but quickly after that Midtjylland closed off the options so Tadic got far less ball, even though they'd been happy for Targett to have it in the same position for most of the previous 20 minutes and defend his crosses. And we all know that lot did their homework on which threats to defend and which to allow.

 

Somehow Targett is being criticised here for being "too far forward" as well as "not keen enough to get forward often enough". It can't be both!

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1-0 to Saints, goal will be a Lambert own goal and the away end will burst into a rendition of 'Rickie Lambert Southampton's goal machine'

 

Not all of us, though in those circumstances I might. :o

 

I did do it at Anfield last season when he was warming up in front of us, (though I drew the line at singing it in Arnhem during the match like some).

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Nah, Targett's crossing has been sub-par on the occasions he even gets that far forward. They're usually overhit long or he just doesn't find a teammate with a low ball.

 

Interesting to note that when the ball is on the right Pelle often makes his early run (and recently we've got better at shifting the ball to him early instead of checking inside and dribbling into trouble instead), but he never makes attacking runs diagonally to the near post towards the left wing. I assume that's because his right foot is stronger so he thinks he can angle the ball in more accurately from the near post (e.g. his deft jumping lob that Howard saved at Goodison last season, his near post goal from Mane's pass against Norwich), but it's too technical for his weaker foot to do the same when short of the near post on the left.

 

Targett's crossing is not a patch on Tadic's for instance, which Koeman pretty much illustrated by bringing Tadic on in Midtjylland as we weren't getting anywhere despite Targett getting the time and space to cross plenty of times. Tadic's first couple of efforts were much better and provided more of a threat, but quickly after that Midtjylland closed off the options so Tadic got far less ball, even though they'd been happy for Targett to have it in the same position for most of the previous 20 minutes and defend his crosses. And we all know that lot did their homework on which threats to defend and which to allow.

 

Somehow Targett is being criticised here for being "too far forward" as well as "not keen enough to get forward often enough". It can't be both!

 

 

 

I think it was the chicken! No...er...hold on, the egg! Um...what's 'starstruck?'

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Nah, Targett's crossing has been sub-par on the occasions he even gets that far forward. They're usually overhit long or he just doesn't find a teammate with a low ball.

 

Somehow Targett is being criticised here for being "too far forward" as well as "not keen enough to get forward often enough". It can't be both!

We'll have to agree to disagree. But both of the goals that we conceded that Targett (rightly) gets blamed for were a direct result of him being too far forward (break outs after our corners). Its not that he does not get forward (he does), but he is too slow to get back when the opposition counter-attack. His defending is perfectly acceptable when he is "in position". His crossing is at least on par with Shaw's before he left, but clearly not up to Bertrand's standard.

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