Coventry City 0-0 WBA

at the beginning of this year's season i found myself waiting eagerly for saturday to roll around. three out of the first four or five albion matches were televised; and by the time i went to england in early september they were on a five-game unbeaten streak. i attended both of the next two games at the hawthorns, which saw them extend the run further, by virtue of two 3-1 victories over plymouth and doncaster respectively; and the day before i came home the baggies thrashed middlesbrough at the riverside 0-5. i listened to that match live on the internet through ALBION RADIO, and returning home i was able to see it as a repeat broadcast on SETANTA SPORTS CANADA. there was every reason to feel positive and continue to look forward to saturdays with the gleeful anticipation that a winning side breeds in its supporters.

live text replay

since my return to canada, however, west brom have been knocked out of the league cup 2-0 by a young arsenal side, dropped two home matches 0-1 to both crystal palace and swansea city, lost away to barnsley by a score of 3-1, and produced two 0-0 results away to preston north end and coventry city - their only win in the last six league matches being a 3-1 home victory against a decidedly poor reading side.

i now wait for match-day with a desperate hope that the albion can find their early season form again, and dread the prospect of more losses and goalless draws. what is going on here?!?!

the truth is, even during their unbeaten run, the team has not yet lived up to its potential. but instead of the break-out that i was expecting that would see at least one of the strikers finding a hot hand, and the baggies taking a clear-cut control of the division, i now find myself waiting desperately for another win, anticipating a struggle for a play-off spot, and listening to everyone talk about bloody kevin phillips again!

when tony mowbray left the club to go and manage celtic, west brom did well in finding roberto di matteo. while i had my doubts about him at first, he was able to instantly revitalize many of the players who had either struggled or gone unused under mowbray, and i don't think there is a single albion supporter who didn't eventually welcome what seemed at the time a real breath of fresh air.



i have found that there are generally two schools of thought as to what the baggies need at the moment. one group is concerned about the albion's ability to keep clean-sheets and improve defensively, while the other believes that they must find goals up front, with only 2 of the last 15 coming by way of the strikers. i am of the latter opinion.

the fact is that an albion striker has not scored a goal since september 19th, and all the clean-sheets in the world will do nothing but produce goalless draws without a decent offensive output; and you can't expect the midfield and fullbacks to produce the goals with the frequency needed at the moment - especially with chris brunt, the club's leading scorer, out of the side due to injury.

what is confusing me most is the gaffer's reluctance to play simon cox, who in league 1 and playing for swindon town, was joint top-scorer in the country last year. while his start against rotherham in the league cup was not a particularly distinguished performance, he did score the winning goal. as well, he redeemed himself further by playing well in the subsequent cup fixture with arsenal, but has not been able to break in as a starter in the league matches; and his appearances as a substitute have not given him enough time to settle in.

with both the january transfer window and the return of ishmael miller still a couple of months away, i cannot understand why he has been given only one start (v plymouth) in the league this year, with di matteo preferring to play luke moore, roman bednar and even young chris wood over the ex-swindon town sharp-shooter?



i would suggest that it's time to make a change and take some chances. i was surprised today, for example, that di matteo did not start cox. bednar was out of today's match - having been injured in the first few minutes against reading - and with luke moore having lost his early season form, i didn't think the gaffer had much of a choice. instead, he once again started moore, and had midfielder robert koren playing in an advanced position, similarly to how mowbray would use jonathan greening in the "ishmael miller project" formation of last year.

personally, i would have started wood and cox in a regular 4-4-2 formation today and see how they got on. despite only one goal on the season, wood has shown some skill and proved useful at using his size and strength to hold the ball up, but we still don't know anything as to how simon cox plays at this level in the league.

i think the gaffer was after victory through keeping a clean sheet today, and assuming that one of the midfielders could score at least one goal, this might have been the case. but i just don't think that a defensive approach is the way an albion team should be playing. especially if none of the strikers are scoring. while the albion have had a couple of excellent defensive teams over the years (the 92-93 team, for example, had 27 clean-sheets whilst recording 17 1-0 victories), they still needed the likes of cyrille regis, laurie cunningham, bob taylor and andy hunt to knock in goals up front.

there are no mid-week matches this week, and it is very likely that bednar will be back in the side next saturday against watford. still, i will be disappointed and perplexed if simon cox does not start next week.