If only..........

......... we had played the rest of the season as we have in the last three games. If we had, we would be comfortably in mid-table. Phillips gave Mourinho a nightmare of an afternoon and I thought Livermore was excellent. These two have typified the problem as they have been poor most of the time. In my opinion we are going down because of Pulis' negative tactics and the lack of respect that the players have obviously shown to Pardew. This does not excuse the players but it must be difficult to play for a manager who they don't rate or respect. A great shame, as we looked a decent side today and were enjoyable to watch.

I am convinced that Pulis would have kept us up too Leicester. The team cant just play for the last 5 fixtures. They should have been more professional from the get go. What Big Dave has done is bring the passion back. He's a top bloke.

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Originally Posted by boingy

I am convinced that Pulis would have kept us up too Leicester. The team cant just play for the last 5 fixtures. They should have been more professional from the get go. What Big Dave has done is bring the passion back. He's a top bloke.

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Begs the question where would you be now if Pardew was sacked say, 3 games previously?

I think the problems at west brom were deeper than pulis or pardew. I think there were a lot of problems behind the scenes and i dont think its any counicidence that things have looked up since a lot of the upper management has left. Maybe a different manager would have made a difference but in a strange way i am glad it came to this because there has almost been a clean sweep of the back office and it needed to be done. Had pulis stayed and barely kept us up it would have just prolonged the agony.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by boingy

I am convinced that Pulis would have kept us up too Leicester. The team cant just play for the last 5 fixtures. They should have been more professional from the get go. What Big Dave has done is bring the passion back. He's a top bloke.

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Pulis was the problem. Pity we won the first 2 games of the season. If we had got to the end of September with a handful of draws he would have been out much sooner and the players would have been freed from his shackles and allowed to play like they did yesterday. Phillips is a darn good attacking winger but Pulis wanted him back all the time helping out in defence. Ditto for many more of the players.
Unless we appointed Pardew....

We should always look for the good things in players (very often I do not) the way Phillips skipped by the full back when we played Arsenal should have been the focal point to replicate in every game for him, he enjoys that kind of game...nothing better than being happy in your work.

If only...we had played Brunty in the first half versus Citeh...we had six set pieces in that half...might have been the best scalp of the season.