Baggies frozen out by Swans

Sunday, 05/02/2012

by Dave Wedgbury, Shoot's West Brom blogger

Well if there was any doubt whether Albion would be involved in the relegation dogfight before yesterday, then I am sad to say but there will be no doubt in the eyes of fans who witnessed another half hearted performance at the Hawthorns against Swansea.

Yes we should have had a penalty for handball but credit must be given to a Swansea team that played with real fluidity and patient passing and Albion for most of the game appeared the exact opposite. We looked disjointed, lacked the ability to string a few passes together and our formation looked rigid and predictable, ultimately Swansea deserved their 2-1 victory.

We have scored the lowest  number of goals at home this season the league and it is easy to understand why, we lack creativity in the centre of the pitch and have a striker in Odemwingie who doesn’t look like he is enjoying his football.

I think one point summed up Odemwingie’s efforts this season when he missed a glorious open chance to equalise with an open goal in front of him and he snatched his shot high over the bar. Whether it is the attitude of the player or the system he is being asked to play in, something is not quite right with last season’s leading scorer and Albion fans have noticed the deterioration in his performances.

The one shining light for Albion is the return of Fortune, he is starting show the effort and determination to impress the Baggies fans, he scored for a second consecutive game to take the lead against Swansea and deserved his goal. It was just unfortunate that the rest of the team could not follow his example and watching us concede too simple worked goals with a lack of discipline to follow midfield runs and allowing players to get in front of us in the box was disappointing.

It was an exceptionally bitter day walking to the ground and I hoped that in addition to the five layers of clothing I had on, there would be some scintillating football from Albion to give me that extra warmth.

I didn’t expect anything too exciting from this rigid formation and usually well organised team but every week I still travel full of hope, but low and behold again yesterday I was quickly bought down to earth with a disappointing thud, another performance lacking the spark of creativity and skill.

Albion are really looking predictable and yesterday managerial battle was the young up and coming Brendan Rodgers against the wily old fox Roy Hodgson. It was a clear as daylight who came out on top and which team offered the ability to play football. The team from Wales proved that less financially strong teams can win matches in the Premier League by playing football.

There were other things that disappointed me yesterday, it wasn’t merely getting frozen and trudging home in deep snow followed by a slow moving motorway journey – all in the name of enjoyment, it was the changes and tactics used by our manager.

Bringing on Scharner when we needed a goal – not a player renowned for his creativity and assists from midfield, also add to that the much tried striker Simon Cox on the right wing. I gasped with frustration when I saw these changes. I looked at our bench and it was obvious we don’t really have options to break teams down and win matches.

We played with hope rather than intent yesterday and this is getting more and more worrying from a fan’s perspective – we blatantly lack the ability to scare the opposition’s defences and pass our way through them, we lack the pace needed to breakaway from midfield and run at defences.

This may sound negative and over the top but I still have the cold pains from yesterday, I have check three times to see my toes are all still on the end of my feet and seeing such poor football is hard to stomach.

Where Roy goes from here is difficult to guess, will our new signings of Ridgewell and Andrews make much difference? We need to sort out our best system for the players available, not make the players fit the system and persist with playing players in 4-4-2 who so obviously do not suit such a system – please Mr Hodgson, sort this for next week because if the fans witness such lack lustre efforts against Wolves, then there will be questions asked.

• 

• Have your say