match text commentary
the baggies couldn't have hoped for a better start to steve clarke's reign at the hawthorns than with a massive home win over liverpool followed by an away draw at white hart lane. even more than the results, it is the manner in which the albion have performed in their first two league fixtures that is really impressive.after making 200 appearances in his native scotland with current SPL side, st. mirren, head coach, steve clarke, joined chelsea in 1987. he played at stamford bridge for the next 11 years, making 421 appearances starting in the humble twighlight of the old FOOTBALL LEAGUE divisions one and two. going into coaching, he learned his trade in the big money environment of international TV football and the almighty PREMIER LEAGUE.
as one of english football's pre-eminent insiders - and having literally grown up working at the likes of newcastle, chelsea, west ham and liverpool - clarke has had a career steeped in the culture of big club football and the traditions of being in a winning side.
this is perhaps the most important quality that the gaffer has brought with him to the hawthorns.
his acumen as a tactician has been singularly important in starting the season off with two good results. at home, the gaffer set his side out in a flexible 4-2-1-3 formation that limited liverpool to 20-30 minutes worth of good football at the outset of the first-half before the albion got on top and took them apart.
away to spurs however, the gaffer employed a more conservative 4-5-1 formation, which gave tottenham a massive edge in possession but allowed for precious little in the way of creating any real scoring opportunities.
having played to a 0-0 score-line going in at the half, the baggies had successfully frustrated the tottenham attack and created a mounting sense of tension amongst the spurs' supporters that would only put added pressure on the home side as the afternoon wore on.
in the second half, the baggies were well on top of the play, and as the match progressed they fully looked the better side. going into the last half hour - and led by their attacking players - west brom aggressively pressed the ball in advanced positions to increasingly greater effect. despite tottenham's first-half dominance, the baggies had weathered the storm and it was now the visitors who looked the more likely to get off the mark with graham dorrans and marc antoine fortune having had the best scoring chances of the afternoon.
however, and from a spurs' corner in the 73rd minute, benoit assou-ekotto gathered a gareth mcauley clearance well beyond the edge of the albion penalty area. while his attempt on goal would otherwise have been saved by ben foster, it took an unfortunate deflection off graham dorrans and skidded into the far corner of ben foster's goal. the baggies' keeper was left flat-footed with no chance to react, and his side were truly unlucky to have gone behind.
one of the more positive characterisitics of west brom team over the last few years has been a resilience that has seen them take points through goals scored in the last fifteen minutes of the match on numerous occassions. applying relentless pressure following the tottenham goal, the baggies found a late equalizer through the determined play of james morrison.
with spurs coming under pressure and needing to do some last ditch defending as west brom flooded the spurs' penalty area in a continuous wave of attack, the ball was cleared off the line by william gallas and bobbled around dangerously in the goal area before it finally fell kindly for james morrison who side-footed home from 10 yards out to put the baggies level in the 90th minute. it was no more than they deserved.
when steve clarke first arrived at the hawthorns he found a team that was really well drilled defensively, they had just bought a top class goalie and were just a couple of strikers short of playing consistently winning football in the PREMIER LEAGUE. knowing he would need more goals from his side, clarke added swedish international, markus rosenberg and chelsea's teenage stiker, romelu lukaku, who came to the hawthorns on season long loan.
steve clarke's tactics and strategies have been in evidence since the season kicked off, and he has set out a side that is committed to a style of play that promises much in going towards improving on roy hodgson's legacy. he's a proper old scots professor who doesn't know a lot about consolidation, mediocrity or playing losing football.
No comments:
Post a Comment