The Premier League Upon Us...

as one of the few - and perhaps the only - non-UK bloggers who writes extensively about the baggies, i am reminded by the pre-season of my relative isolation from my subject material.

there are fans who post to online forums, as well as professional journalists of all kinds - and including bloggers - who live in the birmingham area, attend the training sessions and reserve matches, as well as keep an eye on the comings and goings at the hawthorns' parking lot. chris lepkowski - whose blogging, journalism and audio/visual work can be found in the birmingham mail, is probably the most pre-eminent west brom journalist, and his name comes up quite often as a source of accurate news amongst the baggies' online community.

my main source of information - as well as my primary access to most baggies matches this last year - has been the ALBION RADIO transmissions, through the club's website; and featuring dave bowler, west brom's head publications editor, with either duncan jones or chris hall doing the match commentary. i write about west bromwich albion and their coverage through live digital-audio commentaries, overseas television broadcasts and wide ranging, diverse online media resources.





in short, i am the first person i know of to report on west bromwich albion football club through a daily analysis of online digital media - and from an overseas perspective. while the myriad disadvantages to reporting on the baggies from 3000 miles away should be evident enough, there are several advantages that might be easy to overlook. while the quality of "objectivity" is not necessarily a virtue, in and of itself, being removed from the pessimistic humour of the black country - which often converts to an unnatural, painful despair over the subject of football - there is a negativity that never colours my writing. i consider myself the quintessesntial, naive optimist as far as my support for the albion goes - a stance that is much easier to maintain from a distance.

my devotion to the albion aside, there is absolutely nothing black country about me, and i look on my visits to the hawthorns as a day-trip to a strange and exotic corner of the world where one goes for no other reason than football. it is a singularly spiritual experience in a suburban industrial wasteland.

while i do always hope for the best, i don't start every premier league campaign projecting a comfortable mid-table finish. for example, when kevin phillips left and the next signing the club made was gianni zuiverloon, i wasn't particularly filled with confidence as i knew that the club had lost a player that they weren't going to be able to replace, and this wasn't going to be as good a team going into the premiership as the side that had won the championship title the previous season. things just didn't feel right. i still hoped for a mid-table finish, but by late october - and after a good start to the season - it was clear that the club was in trouble. i still remained positive on the issue of survival right up until the loss to liverpool saw them dropped back down to the championship for the following season.





while i have been a bit worried by the lack of goals in this past pre-season - and i have to keep reminding myself that defensive organization was probably the gaffer's main concern. i mean, why else would di matteo play chris brunt as a defensive mid-fielder?!?! ishmael miller knocked in a couple of goals, but more crucially the baggies didn't concede more than one goal per match in any of their pre-season friendlies, so in that sense, it has probably been a fair success for the head-coach and his team.

most educated pundits haven't foreseen the baggies having any trouble with their attacking game at premieship level anyway, and are generally more positive about the albion's ability to find goals - and from a wide ranging source of players - than many of their most die-hard supporters. west brom boasted 19 different scorers last year, 4 with 10 goals or more. the defence, on the other hand, has been a different matter althogether. it has been evident, however, that RDM has focused quite specifically on this long time problem and addressed it with a group of successful summer signings that will go a long way to making the baggies more solid at the back.

it's expected that a large number of teams will be playing a variation of the continental 4-5-1 attacking formation this season, and it's become pretty evident from the recent signing that west bromwich albion will be one of them. football seems to be moving into a new era as teams playing the standard 4-4-2 formation become fewer and far between. indeed, variations of the 4-5-1 were decidedly predominant among teams at this year's world cup; and the success of these tactics in recent UEFA competitions suggests it will soon be the preferred formation of most top professional clubs. the albion had already started playing this system under tony mowbray, who abandoned the idea after ishmael miller's injury. it was, however, revived by roberto di matteo after last year's defeat to nottingham forest. with a free-scoring mid-field, it was something that worked well and was still an enterprising and entertaining prospect when going forward.

there have been more popular teams at the hawthorns over the years than the club as it is now. and i've never really felt like the supporters were behind roberto di matteo the same way they were with either gary megson or tony mowbray at the heighth of their successes with the club. it is a wide held belief, for example, that there hasn't been a really solid all-around team since bob taylor and darren moore were with the club and the baggies began their long-time flirtation with the premier league. while more recently, many supporters have yet to come to terms with kevin phillips' departure for blues, which came about largely due to the chairman sticking to his guns on club policy towards terms of contracts offered to older players.





this year, however, i am expecting a mid-table finish, and i believe this to be the best albion team yet to be going into the premiership. by virtue of the process of elimination this probably makes the current squad the best west brom side since some time in the early 80s before the baggies were relegated from the old 1st division, not to return to the top-flight again for 16 years.

enough of the current team has seen life in the premier league before, and no doubt it will be much less daunting than the last campaign. expecially when everyone involved realizes the quality and potentials of this particular albion side compared to that of previous premiership campaigns.

while the management has made a number of excellent signings that will make the baggies a decidedly more defensive team, they still need another striker who can play the 4-5-1 formation. ishmael miller is still a bit of an unknown quantity at premiership level, and if simon cox can get into position he's capable of finishing with the best of them. players like gianni zuiverloon might even have an easier time with the decidedly less physical game of the premier league than that played in the championship. and there are many new faces in the squad that we have yet to see how the whole thing gels. it could all be a bit of a surprise!

Uncle Cyrille Says...

The Black Hole of the Premier League

west brom - as with almost all the other teams who've been identified as potential "strugglers" in the premier league - are having more trouble than usual making their pre-season signing targets.

while the baggies have cleverly kept together an all important core group of players, consolidated their targeted loan signings from last year, and have made some important new acquisitions in specific and identifiable defensive positions - including a second goalie, they have been unable to get any interest from suitable strikers at premiership level; and - if i'm to take the current postings in various online discussion forums as any indication - the supporters are beyond impatient. take a look at the shattering negativity of some of the more recent posts and subsequent discussions on BBC 606, for example.

there is a wide-held belief that it's all down to chairman, jeremy peace, not making an adequate amount of money available for transfers and player wages. i don't think it's quite that simple. for sure, JP has requisites, hard-line precedents, and a measured limit on what can be spent. but much of mr. peace's caution derives from the fact that the baggies simply don't have a rich owner, benefactor, corporate interest, or any other source of benevolent, interested, and ambitious money with which to strengthen the squad. therefore, it's got to be done in a measured and careful manner, with managable goals, that will ensure that the club is always at least competitive for a place in the top-flight, and does not go the way of leeds, sheffield wedneday, sheffield united, charlton, norwich, southampton, portsmouth and hull (to name just a few) who have all run afoul of what can happen to a club when it spends premier league money and doesn't live up to top-flight competitive requirements.

hull city, for example, played two seasons in the premiership before being relegated, but spent something more like three seasons worth of money in doing so. while the parachute payments will help with the club's debt, they will lose much of their squad and may eventually end up in a relegation battle at the wrong end of the championship. no matter what other criticisms you may have - and with JP as chairman - you will never see this at west bromwich albion.

as always, teams like manchester united, liverpool, arsenal, tottenham, manchester city and chelsea have a definite edge in attracting players. while this has long been true, it hasn't always been about the money! in the past, and for young footballers looking to get into their national sides or just expand their professional opportunities, these were traditionally clubs where one went to fulfill their aspirations.

but with the focus now shifting ever towards the financial considerations as the bottom line, sportsmanship and its attendant aspirations have been banished to an antiquated afterthought. coupled with the structure of the premier league, both financially and in terms of the number of player personnel that a team can now employ - the gap in between the top-half of the premiership and that of the bottom-half is finally and glaringly evident in a way it never quite has been before. the dream is more than over. it has been trashed and forgotten. even everton, the team that holds the record for the number of consecutive years in the english top flight - and a club that has always held its own with the other top sides, both on and off the pitch, - is now a second grade team with apparently limited resource; while the likes of wigan, west brom, and bolton are now treated as decidedly undesirable destinations to look for a career move.

nobody, it seems, is signing anybody.

indeed, the situation is so bad that roberto di matteo has now stated in an interview with BBC WM that he doubts there will be anymore signings between now and the beginning of the season. personally, i found it to be a bit out of character for di matteo, who usually does not discuss internal football politics with the press, and took it as a statement to the supporters demonstrating that this is the way things are at the moment and that he's as frustrated as they are. the all important required striker is just not there, and there's probably not much point in worrying about it until september or the right opportunity presents itself.

i think the baggies can take heart at the recent resurgence of midlands football in the premier league. with the relative and recent successes of wolves, birmingham, stoke city, and a squad that includes ishmael miller, roman bednar, simon cox, graham dorrans, chris brunt and a series of new defensive signings, i feel that things could be starting out a whole lot worse for the albion than they are.

In Search of Reason!

looking at the posts to BBC 606 (and various other online football forums), there is a lot of complaining going on amongst the supporters about lack of transfer activity. i suppose that that's going to be a universal anxiety for the fans of a club coming up from the league and going into the premiership for the fifth time in a decade. the signings will get done, but not until the market begins to close and the serious considerations begin to present themselves.

what i really can't believe is how badly the fans are under-rating the team "as is", and over-rating the prospect of premiership football! it is very negative stuff indeed. especially on the issue of strikers.

nobody seems to be giving ishmael miller much of a chance, for example; despite the fact that he's only 23 and has yet to complete a full season with the club. he was pretty sensational when he came to west brom on loan from manchester city. scoring in his debut, he was called up to the england under-21 squad, nominated for championship player of the month and he netted a hat-trick in the FA CUP quarter-final that year; as well, as forming an impressive partnership with veteran striker, kevin phillips.

in the premier league, however, he was cast by manager, tony mowbray, in a much tougher role of lone striker playing a 4-5-1 attacking formation. while he was hardly prolific, and slow to start, he had recently scored a good goal away at newcastle, and looked to be just coming into form, before a collision with portsmouth goalie, david james, took him out of the game for well over a year.

again - and 14 months later - miller scored on his come-back start for the first team against blackpool, at a crucial juncture in the team's promotion battle. on the subsequent tuesday evening, he scored late-on as a substitute, giving the a baggies an all important 2-0 win away to swansea, and a virtual strangle-hold on automatic promotion. at his best, he is a fast, strong and deceptively skillful goal-scorer.




still, he is a bit of un-known quantity, as he is painfully one-footed (left), seems to be sucseptible to niggly, little injuries that keep him from getting a decent run in the first team; and we don't really know if he's a good premiership player with the ability to improve, or a just a very talented football league player, who would no doubt be able to attain the status of "folk-hero" with a long career at one of the bigger clubs in the championship or league 1?

you would think the faithful might display a little more faith in the former.

the fans are a little more generous with roman bednar. he scored six goals in his last premier league campaign, and even his worst critics are expecting him to go at least one or two better this term. i mean we started last year's campaign with luke moore as the main striker. things would seem a lot better this year, even by the more demanding standards of the premiership.

with bednar and miller as our main strikers - and the impact potential of simon cox - there is still plenty of attacking football to be explored on this team, and i think the supporters are being absolutely ridiculous in their expectations in this regard. certainly, the club needs another big striker to accomadate RDM's apparent tactical formations; but, that's only because we sold craig beattie last year and didn't replace him; whereas, i think the punters are expecting the club to bring in a "proven" 15-20 goal-scorer at premier league level! well it ain't gonna happen!

the premier league can do terrible things to a supporter's level of expectation.

variously there are cries and criticisms in regards to just about everyone except graham dorrans and gonzalo jara. i just can't believe that it isn't so much more obvious to everyone that this is the best baggies side since sometime between 1982 and 1986. by this, i mean, that it might not be as good as the team that lost an FA CUP semi-final to QPR in 82, but is certainly better - and relative to the post premier-league era - than the one that was relegated a few years later.

as usual, the most critical of the punters are pointing back to the issue of jeremy peace not making enough transfer money available. there have even been rumours of JP getting ready to sell the club, which - by the way - i can find no reports of in the mainstream press. however, he is indeed trying to strengthen his financial control and expand his ownership of the club. but after all, he is also a business-man. through a televised BBC interview for the "late kick-off" show last year, i listened at some length to JP speak of his ambitions for the baggies, and i believe he is authentic, and committed to finding a realistic niche for west bromwich albion in england's top-flight - and perhaps, eventually, even beyond.

beside the percieved need of another big striker, there seems an essential and widespread lack of faith among the supporters in the core group of players; and it seems that there is a surprising number of supporters who have never really warmed to roberto di matteo, despite the success, confidence and winning attitude he has brought to the club.




i will concede that while an italian manager who appears to be building a decidedly continental-style side, playing a 4-5-1 formation (or "4-2-3-1" if you like) and featuring two defensive midfielders is decidedly out of character for a club that has been committed to "attacking football" (for better, or worse) for the last half century; but di matteo saw what he had in terms of talent when coming to the club, did the best with what he had, has now quite obviously begun to implement his own vision of football at the hawthorns, and he's probably got some idea of how to go about making it happen.

if you actually read the top writers who follow league football in england, they were all pretty much in agreement when assessing the baggies' premier league prospects, that they were going to need to strengthen their defence significantly if they were to compete. i have even seen criticisms saying that the task may be beyond them, and will be their downfall in surviving the top-flight. no writer i've read, however, was too concerned that the baggies would have any trouble controlling the ball, getting forward or even scoring goals.

we have made some good signings since RDM took over. gabriel tamas, gonzalo jara, steven reid, giles barnes and pablo ibanez. this will strengthen the defending a great deal and the issue of a new goalie is academic. dean keily is moving into full-time coaching and dropping to third choice keeper. so whether it is a definite backup for carson or someone who might challenge for the starter's position, that is yet to be seen, but there will be new goalie at the hawthorns either this year or next. as for this season, the club will eventually find another target man, however humble an acquisition it may be.

i think the baggies will surprise this season. i'm expecting them to finish ahead of blackpool, bolton, blackburn, wigan, and wolves, as definite; and they should be competetive with west ham, birmingham city, newcastle, sunderland, stoke and fulham, depending on these particular clubs' form. even if we aren't, it won't simply be down to the albion's lack of an imaginary £20m centre-forward.

Centre-Halfs, Strikers and the Strange Case of Borja-Valero

the baggies are buying defenders! this last week and a half has seen the permanent signing of gabriel tamas from auxerre, as well as the arrival at the hawthorns of pablo ibanez from atletico madrid. in simple evidence as to my argument that this is the best baggies squad in years, the last time we went into the premier league our best centre-half was jonas olsson - and that was by a very long way! i don't know much about ibanez, other than his age and credentials; but certainly, tamas is a much better player than olsson was in the last top-flight campaign. happily, there is every indication that both olsson, himself, and abdoulaye meite are both going to be much improved players to two years ago; and now there looks to be a solid premier-league signing in ibanez.

as heartening as it is to see that we've now got a decent complement of centre-halfs - and the imminent signing of a second goalie is academic, as dean keily begins his move into coaching - what the club really needs is full-backs - and more importantly, a better defensive system.




as the albion are primarily an attacking team whose game depends on having superior ball possession, they are too often caught out coming forward and are susceptible to the counter-attack. the most memorable example was the 2008-09 premier-league home fixture with chelsea. i don't think the super-stars from stamford bridge had five minutes on the ball in the first twenty. however, with the baggies unable to score and pressing further and further forward, they were caught out at the back and conceded at the first chelsea counter-attack. from that point on, they were chasing the game and ultimately got completely shredded in a 3 or 4 goal rout.

i'm probably more optimistic than most, but i believe that the baggies are going to be much more than competitive with teams in the bottom half of the division than in 2008-09, and i don't see any reason why di matteo should have to radically change his approach when playing wigan, bolton, blackburn, wolves or west ham. however, in fixtures with the likes of man. united, chelsea, arsenal, man. city and even the villa, i would change the system to feature two defensive midfielders. while this is a common tactic in italy and france, it is not used much in england and i have a suspicion that it would take premiership sides quite by surprise. especially in light of the baggies' exceptional attacking midfield. with brunt, dorrans, morrison, cox or thomas coming forward behind bednar or miller, and mulumbu already playing the deep midfield, an extra defender playing next to him won't be in anybody's way. this would allow cover for overlapping runs from the full-backs going forward down the flank, and also cover for the centre-halfs in the middle of the park on set-plays. here is another reason that i believe acquiring one or two top-notch full-backs should be the club's primary concern at the moment.





as to the question of strikers - and in retrospect, i can't help thinking that selling craig beattie was not such a good idea - we still haven't seen a full season from ishmael miller but have some idea as to his potential, and we know that bednar is fairly well suited to a single striker game. cox and moore could only be used in a 4-4-2 system or as deep attackers in a strikerless formation, so a third big man who can play a 4-5-1 system would seem requisite. stoke city's james beattie is reported to be the club's current signing target.

this all brings us to the strange case of borja-vallero, west brom's all-time record transfer fee who's been out on loan with mallorca in la liga since last year. borja-vallero was brought to the club by tony mowbray and is a mid-fielder very much in the preferred mould of the TM style of player: better than average ball skills, possessed of a measured and tidy passing game, moving well into space and taking on defenders with wit and guile rather than power and pace. in fact, he was completely interchangable with both robert koren and jonathan greening and could fill in for james morrison or chris brunt as well. tony mowbray's pronouncement was that he was the best technical footballer in the side and predicted a big future for him in english football.

instead, he saw about ten minutes playing time at the hawthorns before being sent out on loan at TM's departure for celtic. by all accounts he has made quite a name for himself in the spanish game. the reports from the hawthorns, however, would indicate that he will be returning to spain permanently. as to why this apparently talented footballer never made it at west brom may always be a mystery.




i'm still unsure about where jonathan greening fits in all this. the veteran midfielder went out on loan to fulham, with the possibility of a permanent move to craven cottage pending the completion of the season. i don't kow if that means he's already gone, but with koren and borja-valero out of the picture i would imagine that the option of bringing him back for a premier league campaign would have had to have crossed someone's mind.

whatever the case, this is still the best albion squad in years, and di matteo's ability to coax results out of mediocre performances is a quality that the team has difinitely lacked over the last few years.

i wouldn't be surprised to see some unusual tactical formations and ruthlessly calculated substutions next year. for example, it's quite possible that RDM would field a 4-6-0 formation against superior opposition with the intention of holding down a 0-0 scoreline and then bring on miller or bednar for the last fifteen minutes or so, looking to snatch the winner through playing the long-ball and counter-attacking.

di matteo used this very tactic to great success in a crucial win away to swansea late last season. although it seemed a bit perplexing at the time (luke moore as a lone "striker"?!?!), it worked. the baggies won and maintained a clean-sheet in one of the few games where they were absolutely outplayed in the midfield, scott carson looked shaky, and there wasn't a goal in sight at either end... not for the first 80 minutes, anyway.

we have now made a couple of good defensive signings, and everyone who matters probably knows that another target man would seem essential. let's hope they don't forget the importance of good full-backs in the modern game.

Gone Daddy Gone!!!

sky sports


birmingham mail


well, it's that time of year: the post-season. and first word from the hawthorns is that robert koren is being let go. i don't know enough about football business to evaluate what the worth of renewing his contract in order that we might sell him and make a couple of quid might be; but i do know that the club is freely releasing a skilled and popular player, and - judging from a couple of posts on the BBC 606 - the supporters aren't generally thrilled about it.

i, myself was sad to wake up yesterday morning to the unexpected news, and so apparently was roko. i can't help but feel this is partly a result of the animosity that existed between himself and the gaffer back in january, when koren was consistently out of the team and there was talk of him joining tony mowbray at celtic. however, after jerome thomas got injured and roberto di matteo had implemented a 4-5-1 attacking formation, the slovenian international found himself in the regular starting eleven playing on the right-wing. while not his favoured position, he was an important part of the team going into that second-half of the season, and his contribution to the baggies' promotion campaign was substantial.



the trouble is that under tony mowbray the club picked up a lot of players who had similar skills and played similar styles. even the full-backs, with the likes of gianni zuiverloon, marek cech and gonzalo jara, are skilled footballers who play as well (if not better) at midfield-wing positions as they do their respective wide positions in the back-four.

with mowbray's legacy still evident at the hawthorns, it's safe to say that there is no lack of quality midfielders at the club: dorrans, mulumbu, brunt, thomas, morrison, as well as the out-on-loan jonathan greening and borja-valero are - to a man - comparably skilled all around footballers. striker, simon cox has even been used in central midfield, ahead of koren, to accommodate di matteo's 4-5-1 attacking formation. all things considered, though, i still think koren - by virtue of his intelligent and imaginative play - will be missed; and the club will have to bring back either greening or borja-valero to make up the difference.

i can understand why the club did this, but i don't doubt that it was a difficult decision.

WBA 1-1 Barnsley F.C.

live text replay



this really wasn't a match worth writing about. however, as good entertainers - and wanting to show they are still taking things seriously - the baggies started a full-strength squad, even though promotion was secure several weeks ago. the albion had a clear understanding of their professional obligations to other teams in the competition to try and get results from as many of their remaining fixtures as possible. for example, they gave sheffield wednesday a crack at championship survival by holding crystal palace to a draw at selhurst park last week.





while we are getting to see the likes of graham dorrans, chris brunt, roman bednar, robert koren, simon cox and ishmael miller in the side, there has been a real sense of diminished intensity about these last two games. certainly no-one wants to get pointlessly injured, and the tactic of playing a very technical passing and control game made it all seem a little like exhibition football. it was great entertainment when it worked and they managed to get a couple of draws where most teams would've rolled over and given up. but, by and large, it wasn't the most scintillating stuff.

i've got plenty of opinions concerning the situation of the baggies going into the premiership and where i think english football is going. a year and half's worth of writing a weekly blog on football has taught me a lot about the game from top to bottom. it's been a great year all around. hopefully, i will continue to improve.