J Rod is a centre forward and Rondon isn't so......

[WBA123]

The game is all about opinions, that's why we're all on here. But I can't agree with the title of this thread.

My opinion is that I find it hard to criticise Rondon. He worked his socks off against 3 defenders on Saturday with a midfield that was 30 yards behind him. The best striker in the world would struggle.

We didn't play well at all on Sunday, I understand how we play. Play deep and hit on the counter and it works because we're so hard to break down.

But, the problem on Sunday was our midfielders were not supporting Rondon. Morrison, Phillips and Livermore had shockers. Even JRod didn't have that great a game, but he was the only one prepared to gamble in the box which is how we scored. How many of our midfielders made attacking runs past Rondon?

When you play the system we play, the bulk of the goals shouldn't come from Rondon. They should come from our attacking midfielders. Because its so hard to track them running from deep, we didn't have that Sunday.

So unless you want Rondon to pick the ball up on the halfway line, beat three defenders and put it in the top corner I don't see how he could have done much more without the support from his midfielders.

Playing Jrod up front on his own wouldn't have done anything else if our midfield played so deep, apart from he can't hold the ball up as well as Rondon.

Got to say as everyone else has the two stand out players were Nyom and Barry. Defensively we only made one mistake, which was enough to cost us two points. Having said that, had we have won, I'm sure nobody on here would be complaining about our style of play.

We can't play attacking, pressing football because our strengths are to sit deep and counter attack. Our defenders are too slow to play high up the pitch.

Ultimately we all want Albion to win however they do it. We all have to understand that we have to sacrifice good football for that to happen with our current system.

[mickd1961]

Any centre forward playing in the type of system we play has to be capable of trapping the ball and holding it up to buy the time for midfield support and wide men/full backs to support.

After more than two seasons it is clear that Rondon in incapable of doing that,his control is dire and his reading of the game is poor.

I listened to Bomber Brown on the radio on the way home,perhaps as an Albion legend you'll take his word for it rather than mine....he was scathing in his assessment of Rondon,not only his lack of goals but also lack of awareness and hold up ability.

Rondon was a wasted shirt,J Rod at CF with McLean or Burke on the flank was by far the better option.

My personal view was that he played Rondon to put him in the shop window in the hope that some desperate club make a bid this coming week.

I hope they do.

[Albionic68]

I fully agree about Nyom Al.

As someone else pointed out though,Livermore is starting to concern me.

If he's an England player then so am I.

Phillips was crap as well.

Hegazi was excellent up until he f k d up and its a mistake I don't expect him to make again anytime soon.

I like Hegazi but I cannot agree that he was excellent prior to the miss kick.

He was pulled out of position far too easily on a number of occasions during the second half, by Shaqiri in particular.

This was largely due to Brunt being out of position, while this was no fault of Hegazi's, his recoveries were often too slow and left us vulnerable to crosses into the middle.

Not a moan, just an observation.

[WBA123]

Any centre forward playing in the type of system we play has to be capable of trapping the ball and holding it up to buy the time for midfield support and wide men/full backs to support.

After more than two seasons it is clear that Rondon in incapable of doing that,his control is dire and his reading of the game is poor.

I listened to Bomber Brown on the radio on the way home,perhaps as an Albion legend you'll take his word for it rather than mine....he was scathing in his assessment of Rondon,not only his lack of goals but also lack of awareness and hold up ability.

Rondon was a wasted shirt,J Rod at CF with McLean or Burke on the flank was by far the better option.

My personal view was that he played Rondon to put him in the shop window in the hope that some desperate club make a bid this coming week.

I hope they do.

I generally think his hold up play in the last two seasons has been pretty good. He also buys fouls and did that on Sunday. I didn't hear the bomber brown interview but it still wouldn't change my opinion. Our option on Sunday was JRod or Rondon. Out of those two, Rondon will hold the ball up better.

JRod might be more dangerous in front of goal, but I guarantee if we play him up front on his own and give him the service Rondon had on Sunday he wouldn't do much better.

If we wanted to put him in the shop window, I can think of better ways than to leave him isolated for 90 minutes against three giant Stoke defenders.