Reflecting on the 1st game & more

I would be loathed to curb any attacking instinct of giles if he's going to bomb forward then it's cover from centre back or midfield which needs to be better.its a bit like Trent Arnold at Liverpool he gets away with it defensively because the gaps are filed behind him by the likes of fabhino. mcgree and Bola were woeful covering him yesterday in the second half. For their goal mcgree lost possetion high up the pitch and was completely out of the game on the counter he just stood as a bystander and that's not good enough
Giles does need to improve his defensive game and that's for certain, but it doesn't mean it will curb his attacking influence, just that he's more effective when we don't have the ball.

I though the trio on the left looked lost at times in that difficult 15 minute spell, but I still say it would be different if Paddy or Fry were in there ahead of Bola.
 
Giles does need to improve his defensive game and that's for certain, but it doesn't mean it will curb his attacking influence, just that he's more effective when we don't have the ball.

I though the trio on the left looked lost at times in that difficult 15 minute spell, but I still say it would be different if Paddy or Fry were in there ahead of Bola.
Did bola look so poor because he got no help from Giles? Not sure and I'd have to watch the game again, but I think that played a part. Fry and McNair to come back so the back 3 will look a wee bit different soon enough. I think if Fry plays on the left he will struggle a bit too with Giles in front of him.

Giles does have to do a bit more defensively.
 
With Giles and Jones in the side we need to either get better at covering the gaps they leave in the corners or get a more mobile CM to see those spaces and cover them quicker.
WBA saw and exploited those gaps much better in the second half and it'll be something we'll see a lot of this season. It is up to us to work on and not take anything away from our wing backs.
Our approach play will improve as we get more familiar with each other, but we desperately need better chance conversion and to shoot more.
Fulham got 0.35 goals per shot on target last season, we got 0.24. Given the sitters we seem to miss then a finisher of any sort would boost those stats considerably, never mind the addition of Giles giving us the potential for a lot more chances to come our way.
 
Personal take is we need a creative midfielder, and I'd even take a Tomlin / Ramirez (spit) like 10 in place of one of the strikers. Once WBA had sussed the wing backs out, we had no Plan B because Crooks and McGree couldn't create and the midfield in general had a poor game. Early days though.
 
For me, the same as most of last season, we lack any sort of power, bite, aggression, athleticism, drive and leadership in midfield. I know the days of carrying a Clayton type player are gone, but we need someone more suited to the deep role than Howson.

We were all over in the second half, the Giles, Bola & McGree inter play isn't there yet.

Bola pee'd me off a couple of times second half, but he was stuck in no mans land on quite a few occasions though.

We desperately need a left footed Dijksteel and a George Boateng type in deep lying centre mid position, Athletic, powerful, big enough not to get bullied, great engine and a decent range of passing etc.

I think if we sort those two positions and drill them on covering to allow Giles and McGree to have a bit more leeway in staying forward we'd be golden.

But at the end of the day, the loss of points rests squarely with Watmore in my opinion. We should really have been 3-0 at half time and West Brom would have come out second half in damage limitation mode.

To sum up, all of the same failures that seen us fall away last season, soft centre in midfield, wasteful with golden opportunities, woeful finishing and not much on the bench.

The difference with last year though is we have £20 million plus to spend, a couple of problem positions already much improved and a few already lined up to come in.

So new LCB - Jacob Greaves from Hull?

New CM either a LCM to improve on the weaknesses in McGree's game - Callum O'Hare? (£6 million bid rejected from Burnley apparently)

Or a DCM to replace Howson who can impose himself on the game more and allow us to utilise McGree's strengths - Hamza Choudhury? (no idea if he can do that role to be honest but he was linked)

Another CM to come off the bench, ideally an attacking one who can create - Hannibal Mejbri? (looks a done deal)

3 strikers, at least one of them with some Champo onion bag experience - (Muniz, Hoppe & Armstrong?)

Probably too much to ask.
 
Did bola look so poor because he got no help from Giles? Not sure and I'd have to watch the game again, but I think that played a part. Fry and McNair to come back so the back 3 will look a wee bit different soon enough. I think if Fry plays on the left he will struggle a bit too with Giles in front of him.

Giles does have to do a bit more defensively.
Giles left Bola exposed occasionally, caught between staying more centrally, or coming out to Wallace.

And Bola looked like he was rocking fir a period as a result. Put Fry or Paddy in there and I think they re more solid for sure.

But going forward Giles was fantastic.
 
Should of been 2 up at half time , we’d have went on and got at least another 1 .
we never seem keen to push on looking for a quick 2nd after we score .
but that’s been the case for 40 years I guess
 
WBA have posted match highlights and you get to see a longer version of the lead up to their goal. To be honest it was poor decision making by Lenihan which led to the goal in my opinion. He needed to stay with Grant and follow his run after he'd beaten him in the air but Lenihan gets drawn to the ball and Grant ends up being freed up to run in behind.

Howson was in a good position to cover and would have been able to get out to the man in possession and prevent him from playing the ball through anyway, or cut out the pass at least.

 
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Personal take is we need a creative midfielder, and I'd even take a Tomlin / Ramirez (spit) like 10 in place of one of the strikers. Once WBA had sussed the wing backs out, we had no Plan B because Crooks and McGree couldn't create and the midfield in general had a poor game. Early days though.

Im sure josh bowler from blackpool could play as a 10.
 
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