Poya 5 games in...

Maybe that's the exact reason sales will come? Other clubs see the player not the form, and we cash in because the players don't look like recovering last season's form any time soon in our team. We make a few shillings and other clubs grab a bargain. Collins, Helik, Anderson, Styles, Brittain, Woodrow, Morris, Palmer etc are all marketable. I'm not saying any of those will go, and obviously players such as Morris haven't been here that long. But I can definitely see other clubs taking a look and thinking on simple terms: last year these players were hugely successful and went far beyond expectations; this year the structure (Val, Mowatt & background team) has been ripped out, the players are low on confidence, and that is easily resolvable by embedding these individuals in a new, successful team that gets the most out of their talent and plays to their strengths.

 

Played 5. Won 0.
Just that.

 

I agree with you that Val was a brilliant motivator of ordinary players to overachieve and he had a clear plan which was likely to lead to our winning more games, maybe until teams had worked out how to counter it. However, I would like to hear the opinions of the Herbie Kanes, Luke Thomases and such as to how they felt their progress was helped, or hindered by the change in style. It may sound unambitious, but I would prefer to be supporting a mid-table Championship team, which plays good passing football through a talented mid-field than one which batters away with the long ball going over the heads of some of our most promising players. The value-added moneyball factor also stalled because of this. Both Kane and Thomas each cost over a million, if you believe the reports, but neither could play easily in Val's system and that's why they were loaned out. Both seemed to lose confidence and form and I think it was down to the fact that the 343 structure ruled their abilities superfluous. I'm ready to be re-shot!!

 

All players at his disposal and against poorer sides bar WBA.

 

No interest in shooting you down, but will give my opinion.

Kane took a while to find his feet, began playing well, then was injured. Inexplicably, when our midfield options were so limited, we loaned him out at the start of this season.

Val arrived on 25th October. Luke Thomas was loaned out to Ipswich on 19th January. Luke and Val probably don't even recognise each other they had that little time working together.

Val had barely any influence on these players positive or negative as he had so little time working with them. Kane because it took him a while to get going, but then got injured, and Thomas because he wasn't interested in battling for a first team place, he just wanted first team football given to him. He didn't get it, Ipswich barely played him and Bristol Rovers haven't played him much either.

On the other hand, I thought Mowatt had by far his best season with us and Palmer really came on, but his form has since dropped off.

 

I think the value Mowatt brought to the team has been grossly underrated , I thought he was one of the best midfielders in the league , he worked his socks off for every minute of every game, he drove the other players around him on & contributed with goals , assists & quality deliveries & to be honest he simply has not been replaced , there is no player who can take the game by the scruff of the neck like he did, yet there were some who thought Styles would instantly walk into his shoes, this was never going to happen & messing Styles about with different positions has done him no favours , last season he was one of the best wing backs in the league , why would you want to change that ?

 

Agreed, it was always gonna be impossible to replace Mowatt individually and it needed the team to adapt collectively, which they have not managed to do.
I would also add the biggest lesson the Owners and the Club need to have learnt is to keep Conway away from doing the CEO role, his record shows he is just not capable of doing it.

 

Kane was on record in an interview at start of season how he was looking forward to a new start with Schopp as it had ‘not quite worked out’ the season before.
Based on absolute no fact at all that I can point to, I get the feeling Kane just didn’t fit into Vals way of thinking & I get the impression that Val was great at man management of the players involved but marginalised players who didn’t fit.

 

He's marginalised players at West Brom but as a manager you are paid to make those sorts of decisions.

 

Nobody is getting shot Thomas, this isn't the wild west despite how people behave from time to time

And on your point about long ball football, you are correct. As a genius once said, 'If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he'd have put grass up there'.

 

He is an absolute draw specialist if you look at his time in Sweden, it could be we don’t win again this season.

 

Bang on.

I thought it was wrong that both Pinnock & Helik won player of the year awards over Mowatt. He was our best player for 3 consecutive seasons by some distance in my opinion, for me he’s a modern great & was better than Hourihane for us (certainly in open play).

I can’t for the life of me work out why so many fans don’t / didn’t rate him that highly. Even now when you see how worse players like Styles & Palmer look without him alongside them fans would rather make out players aren’t trying or that whoever’s coaching the players is clueless rather than realise how influential he was.

We had a great season last year but we grafted our ******** off & won most games by a single goal. We didn’t blow teams away. You lose your best & most influential player & also a fantastic goal scorer in Dike & it’s made a huge difference regardless of who’s coaching the team.

 

Also 8 shots on goal in his 5 games in charge backs up my theory - we certainly won't lose as many but there's little chance of winning with those kind of statistics.

 

Agree about the helik one but Pinnock was immense that season and quite rightly won player of the year. We had the best defence in the division conceded the fewest goals and pinnock is now a premiership player and looked a class above that season. Jesus i can remember when people thought lindsay was the bettet of the 2.

I agree with the rest you say about mowatt but that season pinnock was a cut above won players player aswell.

 

The situation with our midfield is pretty desparate. I don't particularly rate Halme as a midfielder, but he'd probably do a better job of protecting the back 3 or 4 than anyone else that we have. If everybody was fit, I'd play a 4-1-3-2, with Halme as the 1.

 

I genuinely don't get the lack of time offered by some to our coach.He's took over a team lacking in confidence and some say fitness.We've been described as a a shambles with no idea or desire.How can that be addressed over night?.
In his short time he's sorted the defence out, we're now more compact and harder to beat.He is now trying to address our forward play which in fairness has been poor all season.Time is running out but without being organized as a starting point we'd be going nowhere fast.In my view he's had 4 games in charge (I discount the Swansea game) and I've seen obvious improvements.I don't know if he can get us out of the mess we're in but to judge after so little time I find quite baffling.

 

Not judging just a bit underwhelmed at the moment. Totally agree he hasn't had much time and I really hope he's got a lot more to show us. I do get the impression though that the relief that Schopp has gone means Poya is being embraced no matter what.

 

I don't know about Poya been embraced I just feel a lack of empathy towards him considering what task he's taken on.

 

Who cares about results and performances!!...(keep up guys) give the coach a few more weeks. Then we will see how much we can get for players.
Thats REAL success, then we can judge him. Come on tarn this could be a really profitable new year.....i cant wait to see money rolling into the club bank account and then showing all the other clubs...how much we.