BBC STORY
big ron, it seems, felt much like the rest of us, that the albion were going up and would be able to consolidate fairly easily after nearly a decade now of false starts and a revolving door promotion/relegation existence. in short, it was a wasted opportunity... a wasted season... a wasted year; and that is the thing that hurts most, i think. life is too short for static activity, and mowbray knew - and despite the fact that baggies supporters are knowledgeable enough to recognize the face of progress and a have sense of the bigger picture - he only really had until november to establish the team as promotion contenders, before his time at the hawthorns would have been up.
to characterize last year as a wasted opportunity... a wasted season, even - is as close to the mark as you get. ultimately, that was the most depressing thing about last year: it looked as though we had finally taken the 2 steps forward that would allow us to be competitive and find a place in the premiership, only to come up a little short on ability to get the job done. this exposed a general naive optimism at the hawthorns, as big ron - being pre-eminently knowledgeable about football - pointed out, that there were problems evident from the first match that were never addressed. the final outcome being that it was the same 2 steps forward and then the same 2 steps back that we've been taking habitually for the better part of this last decade.
i've always been a staunch supporter of tony mowbray's; and the only real criticism of his tenure at the hawthorns, is that he wasn't able to figure out the premier league - and as a result was victimized by his own naivety and the inexperience of his players. i mean, both bednar and miller would have scored more goals if they had merely had the presence and experience of a senior striker in the squad. not even necessarily kevin phillips - just a striker or attacking mid-fielder who's been around and has developed some professional wile and guile, and knows what extra qualities it takes to score goals at the premier league level.
i think because of this, the gaffer was initially spending a lot of time on developing a playing formation based around ishmael miller - as well as the development of miller himself, possibly to the exlusion of other things that needed attention - like the lack of a decent inside right back other than jonas olsson. this was a major problem after olsonn was hurt, and those to whom the duty fell (alternately donk, meite, and eventually shelton martis) were all hot and cold in terms of performance. none really had the requisite experience, and each made critical mistakes in spite of some otherwise good efforts and decent play. mowbray also left scott carson in goal too long, and you could see it was burning out the then england number 2 goalie.
we'll never really know, but i have my suspicions that the "miller project" - which saw the albion playing a most uncharacteristic 4-5-1 setup, with jonathan greening in an advanced position as the supporting attacker - would have worked well enough to produce those extra 2 or 3 results that the baggies needed to stay up. but it was certainly a perplexing and frustrating period and the tactics were only just beginning to work when miller was injured and out for the season. there was evidence of this in the goal that miller scored in a losing cause, against newcastle; and the portsmouth match in which he was actually injured. greening had scored to put the baggies up 1-0, and throughout the 2nd half, miller was menacing the portsmouth back line in a series of fast-breaks on the end of long balls and incisive counter-attacks. it appeared only a matter of time before he would score the baggies 2nd. instead, he was injured and whatever mowbray had been working on was - without adequate back-up - lost, and effectively leaving half the season wasted, right there.
after that, the focus shifted to scrambling for forwards on loan deals, scrounging for goals that would just not appear for love, money, nor skill; and an inability to regularly keep clean sheets. it seemed that throughout the year, as if they hit the woodwork as many times as they scored (maybe more) - and while some of the skills and play at the forward position saw positive development after the acquisition of fortune, the goal-scorer that the baggies so desperately needed never appeared - or rather, appeared too little and too late, with chris brunt finding a hot scoring hand for the last 4 or 5 games only - and was the last baggie of the season to see a shot tipped off the post.
i'm sure that big ron saw what the rest of us did: that the baggies were a superior team in the middle of the park with their control passing game - which always looked so effective until they got into the final 3rd, where they largely opted to try and walk the ball into the goal like an old-fashioned south american club might have done. unfortunately, the overall effect was that of indecision and not taking chances when they appeared. likewise, i'm sure that the ex-gaffer also saw the potential weaknesses in the back four and distracted goalie; but i would love to know the full extent of what old ronnie atkinson saw in those first few games, and what observations and advice he might have to quietly whisper in the ear of the club's incoming manager - whoever that might be?
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