Bilic must take some blame

[wbaliquidator]

Bilic was way out when he stated that many of the players in the promotion team would be better suited to the premier league.

To be honest because I had great admiration for the guy I believed him.

It’s now clear beyond any doubt having experimented with formations and systems, swapped managers, swapped coaches, tried various psychological techniques, including massaging players ego’s , soft and hard approach he was well out.

[boingy]

If things had gone well for us in those first few games, 3 points v Chelsea for example I'm sure the confidence would have reflected that to some extent. We have some decent players but Bilic should have been given funds to add to the squad. Its criminal that he wasn't. When Villa get 200 million to spend and we have 45 million what do you really expect? What can any of us expect?

[baggieal]

Bilic was way out when he stated that many of the players in the promotion team would be better suited to the premier league.

To be honest because I had great admiration for the guy I believed him.

It’s now clear beyond any doubt having experimented with formations and systems, swapped managers, swapped coaches, tried various psychological techniques, including massaging players ego’s , soft and hard approach he was well out.

Bilic was not ruthless enough. The team evidently struggled from lock down and were lucky to gain promotion but Bilic said - he wanted to give the players the chance as they gained promotion.

Phillips and Sawyers were shocking in the championship consistently since lock down so why would they be good enough for the Premier?

Livermore was average at best in the Championship and went missing on a number of occasions!

We never replaced Gayle and said this a million times!!! Only an idiot would say Kanu, Austin and Zohore set the championship alight - look at them in comparison to those Brentford players!!! I personally think they were average at best for the championship!

Selling Hegazi was plain stupid - that’s Dowlings fault!!! He should be shot!!!

Diangana and Grant are not Premier players - who takes the wrap - Bilic or Dowling or both???

Defence with Furlong, Townsend, Bartley, Ajayi and Gibbs - average championship standard!! O’Shea needs more experience in the championship!!!

Pereira good championship player and perhaps might be OK in the Premier in a decent team. Johnstone to his credit best improved!

So yes Bilic should take a lot of the blame but I blame Dowling and Lai even more!!

Big Sam needs to take some blame too as he’s persisted with Phillips and Sawyers and team look even more disjointed than before!

Shambles of a club!!! Do you really think we would beat Brentford or Norwich even now? I don’t!!!!

Look at the squad who missed out to the Vile because of wrong management appointments!!! Far superior to the rubbish now!

[wbaliquidator]

Its often stated that the best form of defence is attack and Bilic opted for this style, indeed it was one of the reasons he was chosen to bring an attractive style.
For the moment we have the worst of both worlds a safety first manager with players who don’t have any clue about defending.

[Barrera]

I agree Bilic must take some blame. As has been said many times on this board, we have not played well since February. We were lucky to be promoted because Brentford collapsed right at the end when in pole position. So the rot set in well before we started this season .... but no one did anything to change things. We just paid good money to bring in Diangana, Pereira, Krov and Robinson (ok a swap) .... so what was the thinking there ..... that this bunch would suddenly turn into Prem world beaters. The only investment to improve was on Grant ... and we spent good money there .... but dithered so long he had no pre season. Gallagher has been the only outstanding acquisition and he is on loan.

Big Sam might sort it out given time .... but will he stick around another year in the Championship .... doubt it at his age... but you never know. We seem to be a shambles from top to bottom and things will not change IMO until Lai moves on. Why he bought us in the first place is beyond me ..... like most Albion supporters I would be happy to go backwards short-term if we benefit long term. Unfortunately I think we are thinking of a short term fix ..... bringing in some ageing “proven” Prem players .... who will be unable to keep us up .... but saddle us with longer term problems .....

[WBA1955]

To be fair to Bilic he was shocked when he saw how little he had to spend. The "give the player's that got us here a chance," we all knew was what Dowling had told him to say.
If Bilic had been given £90m to spend the majority of the team would have been gone.
Bilic should have walked then and Dowling would have taken the rap, but he persevered with what he had until Dowling used him as a scapegoat.
I do concede though that team performances had been poor since February and he has to take some of the blame for that.
All the more reason he should have gone when he knew that he was left with the same player's.

[boingy]

To be fair to Bilic he was shocked when he saw how little he had to spend. The "give the player's that got us here a chance," we all knew was what Dowling had told him to say.
If Bilic had been given £90m to spend the majority of the team would have been gone.
Bilic should have walked then and Dowling would have taken the rap, but he persevered with what he had until Dowling used him as a scapegoat.
I do concede though that team performances had been poor since February and he has to take some of the blame for that.
All the more reason he should have gone when he knew that he was left with the same player's.

Great post.

[baggieal]

To be fair to Bilic he was shocked when he saw how little he had to spend. The "give the player's that got us here a chance," we all knew was what Dowling had told him to say.
If Bilic had been given £90m to spend the majority of the team would have been gone.
Bilic should have walked then and Dowling would have taken the rap, but he persevered with what he had until Dowling used him as a scapegoat.
I do concede though that team performances had been poor since February and he has to take some of the blame for that.
All the more reason he should have gone when he knew that he was left with the same player's.

I agree with most of this Des but well over 30 million was spent on Diangana and Grant who don’t look Premier league players on showings so far. So who takes the wrap for this Bilic or Dowling? On the other hand - a 20 year old kid from the Chelsea academy is showing Premier quality and outshining every player we have!

[WBA1955]

Grant was always going to be hit or miss, but Diangana was one that i and most Albion fan's wanted but never thought we would get.
The tuth is some promising championship player's never cut it at this level. There is still time for Diang and Peirera to come good, i think they will, but they would have been much more comfortable in a squad of seasoned leaders at this level.
At the moment they are rabbit's in the headlights. The pressure is on them more because they were the ones expected to shine.