That second half performance

[madras]

 

Caught talking rubbish.

 

I agree though Mick, its a massive shame we didnt go on and sort out the 3rd goal but thats football. It was the opening of the second half, we didnt impose ourselves and threaten them like in the first but that was because the game became disjointed and broken up by the ref too.

 

The only thing that matters to me and should matter to anyone who cares about this club is the 3 f***ing points!!!!

 

That was the first laugh I've had all day so don't try to get out of it.

 

You're right about the importance of the 3 points, it's all that really matters tonight and I'd settle for a few more games like that if we get 3 points every time.

tonight was about more than the 3 points.

 

confidence was the main thing missing and i doubt the 3 points will get the confidence back because of the way we were hanging on at the end. (you could see the lack of confidence in a few of the players in the 2nd half)

 

No, you're right, a better performance and a 1-2 loss would have been much better.

 

but while the naiveity wont make a difference against west brom, it may cost us points in the future. i think our defence played very well (apart from enrique, who was dodgy as f***) but against better teams we will pay the price for our managers stupidity.

Justify that statement.

 

I thought there was whole debate going on around this club about the quality of the players? Suddenly that debate is gone, the players are clearly a better class than the opposition and its just the manager who is at fault? Let us not forget the utter shithole of absurdity the club has been wallowing in either.

 

ok maybe i've been a bit harsh. but we needed this win so badly, and to take jonas and oba off was a very bad decision imo. i can maybe understand jonas, because of his injury (although he doesn't seem too unfit to me) but oba's pace in the last 20 minutes could have killed them off. we must have had about 5 breaks, but with ameobi and xisco up front there was hardly any movement or pace. oba has his flaws, but he has good movement or pace, and we could have killed the game off in the last 20 imo if we still had oba on the field as their defence fell to pieces.

 

Oba off was the right decision, its not just his running on the ball that you need to look at, its the ineffectual stop-start 'ooh-i-dont-know-what-to-do-oh-f***-it-i'll-do-nowt-instead' runs that you want to worry about. Joe made the right decision as Shola still had energy at that point and was more in the game.

 

but a front line of xisco and ameobi could hardly be less effective. shola did alright tonight, i must say, but in a game such as this that we NEEDED to win we should have kept oba on imo and jonas as well. they may have been struggling, but jonas was still the most effective player in the second half and oba's pace would have killed them in the last 20.

 

i honestly can't remember jonas doing anything effective in the 2nd half. oba looked disinterested all game (compared to his normal self)

[ChezGiven]

The Jonas substitution was another positive from Kinnear's performance.

[Mick]

The Jonas substitution was another positive from Kinnear's performance.

 

I would have replaced him with N'Zogbia but he was right to take him off.

[Guest optimistic nit]

tbh i only watched the second half, and jonas looked a bit jaded, but it was still impossible to take the ball from him and he did some good defensive work. oba was shite, but (with hindsight i concede) he would have benefitted much more than shola or xisco did from the openness of the last 20 minutes of the game. having xisco and shola up front was just asking for trouble. there is nothing there in those 2 that will frighten defenders.

 

[Conjo]

I havn't botherd to read through this thread, but immediatley after the whistle had gone to start second half, I knew we were going to struggle. As soon as Given got the ball, he held onto it to make the time go and slow play down. That for me was a good indication of what instructions the players had got at half-time. Gutless from the manager and players considering how the first half went.

 

As for the substitutions, they weren't surprising considering our tactics. It's really a no-brainer that N'Zogbia should have been out there instead of Geremi, and that Xisco should have replaced Ameobi.

 

The sooner new owners are in place, and JK is replaced, the better.

[Guest justin99.]

As soon as Given got the ball, he held onto it to make the time go and slow play down. That for me was a good indication of what instructions the players had got at half-time. Gutless from the manager and players considering how the first half went.

 

the team were sitting in 19th place with only one win.

 

you can't blame them for being cautious and desperate for the win

[Offshore]

Its a good job WBA aren't blessed with strikers to match their football. If we had to chase them at 2-0 down I don't think we'd have managed it.

 

 

[Rebellious]

Was the bad second half a case of bad tactics from the manager or poor/gutless player performances?  A bit of both?  I didn't see the match, but some of our players have made a habit of disappearing in difficult situations.

 

Manager advisng the team to sit back and hold the lead.   A better team would have torn us a new back 4.

 

Taylor scares the shit out of me. 

 

I havn`t read the whole thread but,

 

You should work for one of the rags.  Kinnear came out at the end and clearly stated he wanted them to carry on attacking. He didn`t want them to sit back and defend. So here you are telling someone who didnt see the match or interview your own made up version ?

 

Also in my opinion it was Collocini that was at fault for the goal, he also pressed and got messed up a few times in a similar way a few times yet Taylor scared you ? 

 

Beye made 3-4 last ditch tackles though that saved the pair of them agreed but Collocini unlike last week was worse than taylor on the deck but was quite impressive in the air even though 95% of his headed clearences went straight to WBA.

[Doug]

Jonas and Barton will need 3-4 games to get full match fitness I think.

The squad is too small to make up for injuries, suspensions etc.

Turning on Kinnear is premature at this stage, but typical of the pressure the managers of this great club have to work under.

[Guest The Toon Army from farawa]

If JFK had wanted to continue attacking why wasn't he in the technical area screaming at the players. That's how managers get instructions across, while the game is in play.

He didn't do anything during the second half and just looked on.

 

[Tsunami]

Considering how awful wba were in the first half our 2nd half performance was an abomination. Seriously, we were 2nd to just about every ball, I don't care what JK has said, we did sit off & we should have paid for it.

 

From the start it was clear that set pieces hadn't been agreed in the dressing room. For their very 1st corner Oba was looking at the bench to see where he should be, he got no signal in return and simply stood there like a spare part. Jonas may be right footed but he has shown already that he performs better on the left & we know that Duff has played rw before. Why did JK start them where he did; is no-one communicating?

 

The subs; wba introduce more pace, we take off a tiring Jonas & bring Geremi on, we then compound our ability to hit on the break by bringing on Xisco for Martins. We did have a couple of opportunities to counter attack but they failed through an intial lack of bodies, we waited for them to join up then lost the ball & were counter attacked ourselves with players left up the field.

 

From about 70 mins onward we had 3 in the box for our corners, each time we lost the ball and were hit on the break. If we aren't going to commit players for the corner you have to play it short and waste time. We simply lumped into the box for them to collect.

 

That 2nd half performance was worrying on so many different levels. Hopefully when they view the vt they will learn from it.

[ChezGiven]

If JFK had wanted to continue attacking why wasn't he in the technical area screaming at the players. That's how managers get instructions across, while the game is in play.

He didn't do anything during the second half and just looked on.

 

 

Did you watch on Kinnear-cam?

[olliemort]

To be honest we should forget abt the second half and just get on with it.I couldnt give a fuck as long as we got the three points.To me we just looked tired in the second half and thats understandable with Jonas and Bartons first games back,Beye and Oba still not fully fit.Thats nearly half our teAM thats not fully fit

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Second half was awful but understandable, even though the performance was bad I think the team will take a lot of confidence away from this one, and now we have Barton back in the dressing room nobody will be left in any doubt as to what's expected.

 

Just ecstatic to have a win, and I'm sure the players will feel the same. Yes, they made it hard work for themselves, but they got the job done in the end.

 

And Kinnear isn't the only manager to make inexplicable substitutions - it's normal that Martins gets sacrificied even though he's our only outlet!

[Guest Pie]

Bearing in mind we had Jonas, Barton,Shola and Martins with very few games between them of late and tiredness was bound to set in. West Brom came out and tried but deservedly got nowt.

 

Personally I thought Steven Taylor had a stinker by the way.

[BlueStar]

Worrying thing is that this is the second game on the trot where we've spent the first half looking generally coherent (aside from the odd slip up we've been lucky to get away with) and come out in the second half only to look a disorganised, panicky mess.  I was begging for the half-time whistle on Saturday because I was hoping it'd mean JK could give them a talking to, calm things down and get us organized.  What exactly is he saying to them?

[ChezGiven]

Against Blackburn, Everton and City, it was the second half performances that were standing out. The last 2 games have been decent first halves and poor seconds.

 

If he gets them to play a decent 90 minutes we may get a result against Villa.

[Guest Edd]

Worrying thing is that this is the second game on the trot where we've spent the first half looking generally coherent (aside from the odd slip up we've been lucky to get away with) and come out in the second half only to look a disorganised, panicky mess.  I was begging for the half-time whistle on Saturday because I was hoping it'd mean JK could give them a talking to, calm things down and get us organized.  What exactly is he saying to them?

Whatever he says at half time, it worked wonders in the games against Everton and Man City.

[themanupstairs]

You lot are f***ing unbelievable.

 

2 draws against decent sides, a bad loss away at our rivals, 9 games where we have conceded 2 goals, not a win in the league since the fluky 1-0 over Bolton and this is how you celebrate?

 

You bunch of f***ing twats.

 

3 points. Nice one. Lets build from here.

 

oh wow! a shining beacon of optimism! an over flowing basket of positive! a loaded gun of happy-jizz!! agree totally mate

[magpie418]

a loaded gun of happy-jizz!!

 

[JJ7]

It was a poor second half performance, but that said, half our team last night werent really match fit. Enrique, Beye, Martins, Barton and Jonas will all get better with games. The tactics were a bit shit though. Had we pressed a bit more at the start of the second half we could have got a third and sealed the game there, because they were shocking at the back first half. Had we done that then Im sure we would have seen a bit more confidence and keep ball.