Bar BS3

At the end of January, we were 16th in the league. We finished the season below that. What improvement..?

Great to hear! Well done for winning the biggest of all battles & congratulations. No side note on this post, because you happen to support your rabble of shite - that is something which can't be cured..! All the best to you & wishing you a healthy new year.

No..! It's cold, wet & windy. It's us that are shit. We can't blame the weather for being that way in late December - it's just doing it's job. It's us that aren't doing ours.

Surely given the week known restrictions on us financially, there can be no doubt whatsoever that an absolute minimum expectation is to maintain our Championship status - so minimum that it can't even have been mentioned publicly at the time of his appointment. Wiemann saved him from that being an issue last season, but now he's apparently our first choice RWB (above the RWB's bought in by NP) we don't have him getting us off the hook and would anyone bet any significant money on us being assured of not going down..? It would be a brave person to bet anything meaningful on it, at the moment.

I'd like to say it was me being ridiculous... but sadly, it's exactly what we've come to expect over the last 22 months.

Not when I think about our next game & what NP has in store for us, no. You..?

Old enough to remember how diabolical we were under Tony Pulis. Arguably the worst, most unpopular manager we've had..? Was particularly depressing comparing his record with NP's earlier on today..!

It depends if any of those players listed may have farted in the same room as NP this week & need to be excluded for a few weeks. The sad truth is that your selection & that of pretty much everyone else who adds to this thread, will likely be better than that of the 1 man whose choices matter & he will no doubt continue with, as we drop further down the table. I don't know what team NP will select - but I doubt it will be the best one available to him. If he bucks his own trend & selects our best team - it's almost a given that they won't have any effective game plan or tactics to work too & our only hope will be in someone producing something special. My prediction is another miserable 2-0 defeat, whilst being out passed & 2 best on possession stats, despite playing a traditional physical, less footballing team. I suspect that we will struggle to muster many meaningful efforts at goal and when chasing the game, we will pass the ball around 10 times at the back, before losing the resultant pun forward, from our original position, eating away our own time to get back into the game and all looking to scared to grab the game by the scruff of the neck, for fear of it all being their fault - because it most certainly won' be the manager taking any responsibility for yet another unimaginative, lacklustre performance & probably another routine defeat to add to utterly abysmal record in charge here. Happy new year everyone..!

Absolutely agree that he should be getting better from the squad we have got. Also agree on your other point, that we are just too easy to beat. Surely, when going through a bad spell (if 22 months, bar a few weeks, classes as a "spell") then at least make us hard to beat, even if we can't win many. We just look clueless most of the time. Unorganised at the back. Lost & unimaginative in midfield and, as a result, don't look much threat in attack. We seem to rely on certain players producing something good in that moment, rather than it coming as a result of any plan, training or tactic. Yes, we've been a little unlucky in some games - but the flip side of that is that we've also won games when we've had luck on our side. It really should be so much better after the amount of time that he's had here and there never seems to be any consistent progress in any area of our game.

We used to be on Sky quite regularly, before NP took over here, didn't we..?

The ones in the backs of cars nod their heads, I think. I'm never usually one to call for a change of managers. NP feels like he's just taking the piss now. We get worse rather than better & if you think that getting AW's most productive season out of him and then playing him at RWB is a positive example of his management, then I really don't know what else to say to you..!

Generally agree.... but a "MINI slump"..?! It's been a 22 month slump, because he still doesn't have any game plan, shape or know his best team.

Do you think results might be better if someone else was picking the team & not playing our top scorer at RWB & Andy King at CB..? Possibly with more of a game plan that taking a set piece, play 10 passes to then return the ball back to where the set piece was originally from, whilst losing games at home..? And with a little more tactical thought that sticking 5 strikers on the pitch isn't going to get you much result when chasing such games..?!

Maybe... I thought they lost a few. Regardless - a 2-0 home win against Luton Town is not a result worthy of clinging onto as a sign of hope, as we plumet towards the relegation zone, after (what is it now..?) 3 wins in 17/18 games...? And it's not been concerning for just those 17/18 games. It's been concerning for almost 2 years now with a 6 games spell of hope that has since long been shown to have been an anomaly, rather than where we actually are/were - and my point was that 3 of those results were against teams that are still below us now.

Forget the squads at their disposal & who managed who & when..... Without NP here we'd never have had the opportunity to see our top scorer moved to RWB or Andy King holding down a CB position..! It's literally like NP has been taking the piss & the majority on here have been nodding along in agreement, like those Churchill dogs you see in the back of some people's cars..! Seriously.... how bad is his record in comparison to our worst ever managers...? He must be holding his own amongst that illustrious list..!

3 of those games were against the very few teams that are currently below us in the table. One was against a lesser mid-table team that had to rebuild over the summer after being "cherry picked" at the end of last seasons over achievement - leaving the Blackburn result as the only one that stands out as a "great result" Competed well against Norwich, but that was the start of reverting back to type for NP. Any manager who chooses to play our top scorer & top play maker at RWB for anything other than emergency cover, deserves the grief he's getting & that has been long overdue in coming his way, after being in an absolute mess since the day he walked in here, getting on for 2 years ago now. It is literally inexplicable that people have generally so tolerant of his record here. Regardless of the circumstances he is hampered by, he still has a squad that is far better than what he gets out of them IMHO. There is no way we should be in serious danger of relegation- which we absolutely are.!

A valid reply & possibly true - but, honestly.... could anyone really be doing worse than NP is & has been doing here, since the moment he got here, nearly 2 years ago..?! His record is diabolical and we look no better organised or have a better shape now than when he took over. The only reason we ever look any better is because all the players DH had out injured have largely been available to NP and we are still just as bad.

You can't blame the tactics.....! There aren't any to blame...!

Aren't most loads of songs adapted into football songs..? Should none of those ever be used.? The Liquidaror is more traditionally as song of West Broms' fiercest rivals, isn't it..?

Yes that's right ( I can't know if you can do bored, rolling eyes emails on here - so just take this reply as one)

Even Nigel Pearson's record here wouldn't push me into hoping for Warnock..! But yes, at least he has a game plan..!

Someone with some sort of tactical nouse who can send the team out with some sort of game plan, would help.

Donald Duck

No. I'm waiting for them to bring out the VR version.!

I agree with all your points - but just saying it's a "fact" doesn't make it a fact..! How can you possibly know how many will actually pass through the turnstiles this afternoon.?