MOTD-are you sure

Am I the only one who found Match of the Day dreadfully condescending towards West Bromwich Albion after their brilliant win over Arsenal last Saturday? Alan Shearer said well done in a “let’s get it over with” sort of way before getting onto one of the national media’s favourite subjects Arsenal and Arsene Wenger.

The Baggies did not sneak it nor were they lucky they were deserved winners although MOTD appeared to be certain that Albion won because Arsenal were poor. Without any argument whatsoever the fact is that the Gunners played as well as Albion allowed them to-end of story.

Tactically Tony Pulis got it spot on as his team played at a pace, high energy and physicality level that just did not suit Arsenal. It is an old cliché but Albion definitely wanted it more but that does not mean Arsenal were poor but that Albion executed their game plan better than the Londoners. That is to their credit.

On social media sites Twitter and Facebook people have been saying in answer to me that no one is really interested in West Brom outside of the Hawthorns. Give me a break! That attitude typifies all that is wrong with the game where the ups and downs of the so called six big Premier League clubs dominating our national newspapers and national radio and TV broadcasters.

Most of the reports started with something along the lines of “the defeat means that Arsenal have lost four of their last five games” not a mention of how West Brom out-fought and out-thought them.

I did have a wry smile on my face when I saw that Arsenal had 77% of the possession with Albion only having 23%. I just said to myself “who cares”? And I am sure that went through Tony Pulis’s mind as well.

It is simple chances=shots on target=goals=points whatever the possession stats are.

However to get to that position you have to collectively win the physical battle and that also means players have win their personal battles. If enough do that then you will create chances irrespective of whether or not you have passed the ball hundreds of times to each other in your own half.

The game is not rocket science and is simple but can and often does get over-complicated by those in it, in my opinion.

West Bromwich Albion are carrying the football flag for the West Midlands and should get the credit they deserve for that and also any win they get in one of the most unforgiving and unsympathetic leagues in the world.

The Latest — Tom Ross's Goalzone

Whatever the situation the game of football has always been and will always be about winning. The reality is that everything else is secondary to the result and therefore that is the yardstick every manager is or should be judged on judged on. So with just two wins, 11 losses and 5 draws in his eighteen games in charge in all competitions Blues boss Gianfranco Zola is understandably coming under increasing scrutiny and criticism from the supporters and I am sure his bosses at the club.

Not many managers take over a team that is doing well! Most take over teams that are struggling so the only way is up. However the major issue for me is that the new manager was hired to change the way the team play to a more attractive style. But whatever way you play the game the important thing is still winning the points. The owners wanted the style of play to be more attractive and that is OK but to change the way any team plays in mid-season was in my opinion asking for trouble. It is not just a question of asking players to play a different way but working with them. Of course there will be players that do not fit that passing attractive way of playing so they have to be replaced again not the easiest of thing to do when appointed with under two weeks to go before the January transfer window opens.

No one knows officially what happened with Gary Rowett but it is clear they fell out for whatever reason. What I cannot understand is why the parting had to come in the middle of the season. Why not wait till the summer? Then surely a manager like Gianfranco would have time to bring in new players to fit the way he wants to play and have time to work with them on his playing philosophies without the pressure of Sat/Tues games?

The decision to replace Gary Rowett mid-season appears to have been a hasty one without much thought to what the potential problems would be for any new manager coming in especially one with instructions to change the playing style. Surely the summer would have been a better time to change managers. By the way I am not saying they should have changed managers just pointing out that the timing of it has been a major problem for the club and I am sure also for Gianfranco Zola.

As I said right at the start winning is all that matters in football so the likeable Italian needs to win games because it will be points and not performance that will keep him in the job.

I would love to see Blues winning by playing stylish attractive passing football but if I can only have one I will take winning over performance all day long.

Speaking to many ex-players they all say to a man that in their experience no manager ever said in the dressing room “go out and entertain” all they ever said was “go and win the game”. As a fan I may be old fashioned but I find winning entertaining. Did Arsenal play more attractive football against Blues in the Carling Cup final? Yes! But who won the cup?

Classless Leicester's sacking of classy Ranieri and Baggies chase for 7th place in the Premier League

After the shock news had eventually sunk in that Claudio Ranieri had been sacked by Leicester City just 8 months after clinching the Premier League title and steering them into the last 16 of the Champions League I was left wondering if the game I and millions of others love could sink any lower into the football gutter.

They should have built a statue to him outside the stadium and given him a long extended contract as it is they should hang their heads in shame. Fans normally cannot wait to chant for a manager to be sacked I am surprised they are not chanting in protest at Ranieri’s sacking.

No one and I mean no one predicted that Leicester would win the title who are now the only team outside the so called big glamour clubs to have won it. I would suggest that it was a lot harder to do for Ranieri than it was for Kenny Dalglish when he managed Blackburn Rovers to the title in 1994/5 a season after they had finished runners up.

Now with the financial clout of Man United, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and to an extent Spurs it was highly unlikely anyone could break into that cartel of elite clubs. But the likeable Italian did with the Foxes becoming everyone’s favourite second team as they battled their way to the title. Now they are the team no one likes and I suspect most hope they get relegated for the embarrassing way they have treated Ranieri. I would hope that most Foxes fans would NOT swap the ecstasy they experienced last season for Premier League survival even if they do get relegated and that is by no means certain. However one thing is certain they were never going to repeat last year’s footballing miracle.

The decision has been made by the Thai owners based purely on financial reasons in other words the 85 million they lose is more important than loyalty, and integrity. I seem to recollect seeing pictures of them dancing with the Premier League trophy at the end of the season.

Even financially speaking Ranieri surely earned himself more time that they gave him? For winning the title Leicester would have received 146 million pounds which is around 40 million more than if they had finished where everyone expected them to. Add on to that the multi millions made from being in the Champions League and the 32 million pounds received from Chelsea for French international midfielder N’Golo Kante’ and perhaps you might agree that Ranieri deserved at least another season relegation or not.

The Thai owners may have swung the axe but it was the players who got him the sack with their below par performances. That drop in form, along with the ageing of some of the team particularly in defence and the sale of midfield Dynamo Cante, who by the way has not been replaced, and you can see why they are 3rd from bottom in the Premier League table.

Only the owners and players know for certain if they did meet the players and discussed their alleged claim that the relationship between them and the manager had broken down!

The players have come out and said they did not stab the manager in the back with the owners but amazingly just a few days after the sacking they beat Liverpool 3-1 which suggests to me that they had downed tools and if that is so, and it is difficult to prove, then it’s a disgrace and to many would just confirm what we already think and that is that the game has few people in it with morals.

What is certain is that it was Ranieri who took a bunch of average Premier League players and turned them into Premier League Champions and it was Ranieri who they have to thank for their big multi million pound new contracts. But as the league table is proving they are still just a bunch of average players albeit ones with a Premier League champions medal. They and the club should hang their heads in shame.

What a race it is in the Premier League to see who finishes the “best of the rest” in 7th place and of course possibly clinching a place in the Europa League. Seventh placed Everton are 4 points ahead of 8th placed West Bromwich Albion but have a real tough game away at Spurs on Sunday while the Baggies are at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday. This is a wonderful opportunity for Tony Pulis’s men to close the gap between them and the toffees to just one point providing of course they do beat the London Eagles and Everton lose at Spurs. Nothing is ever that certain in football but if those results do go according to form and plan then it sets up everything for an absolute belter at Goodison Park between the Baggies and the Toffees on the following Saturday March 11th.

Of course nothing will be decided then but what it will do is make for an exciting final ten games of the season for every Albion fan.

Blues, Gianfranco Zola and winning games

Last Saturdays result at St Andrews left Bluenoses feeling more miserable than at any time since the embarrassing 8-0 home drubbing by Bournemouth and understandably so. It was a dismal performance which from the outside looked like abject surrender.

The manager quite rightly is held accountable for the team’s results however surely the players must take some responsibility for the results? Individual errors happen because players switch off or lose focus and they have cost goals and points. No matter how badly you are playing you can run around and get stuck in and make life difficult for the opposition-that in my opinion did not happen on Saturday.

The morale and confidence of the team must be rock bottom with just one win in 14 games so it is worth remembering that the game is mostly about “between the ears”. Win a game or two and the confidence is high, with everyone wanting the ball, and you believe you will win. However a losing run can see confidence disappear with individuals touch also vanishing, more mistakes are made due mainly to trying to force the game. With confidence you can go a goal down and believe you will still win, without confidence you start to doubt. That is why mental strength is so important in a player. The biggest problem for Gianfranco Zola is getting the players believing, which is extremely difficult on the back of such a poor run.

The clamour from fans for the head of manager Gianfranco Zola amid media reports of talks with the TTA board led to much speculation that the manager was due for the sack. However director Panos Pavlakis has made it clear on more than one occasion that Zola is their choice and has the board’s full support and that they are sticking with him.

However I have been around long enough to know that if they were to keep losing games it would test that support to the limit.

I am more of the opinion that Gianfranco Zola is a proud man and is more likely to walk away from the job if he ever started to doubt his ability to turn things around.

He knows better than anyone that the game is about winning first with style and formation etc. coming a distant second. In my experience no one complains about anything when you win and everything when you lose.

I made it clear from the outset that I was staggered by the sacking of Gary Rowett, however with working with over local 70 managers in my broadcasting career I also realise that once it happens you have to move on and support the new manager because nobody involved with the club wants then to lose.

When the decision was taken that Gary had to be replaced they could have brought in a manager with similar philosophies to him but they had decided, as is their right as they own the club, that they wanted the team to play more attractive football and move in a different playing direction so opted for a manager who would do that.

However rarely does a new manager take over a team that is 3 points off third place, normally they take over a struggling club where the only way is up and expectations are not sky high.

It was always difficult for GZ because he had to;

a) Win over the fans;

b) Change the playing style;

c) Bring in new players during the January transfer window;

d) Try and win games.

That is a tough ask for any manager and in my opinion would have been far easier to do in the summer without the pressure of two games a week plus there would be more time to bring in new players and instil into them your way of playing.

The owners must have realised to change mid-season was risky but they decided it was a risk worth taking in the long term.

I interview Gianfranco twice a week and let me make it very clear he cares passionately about the club and building a winning team for the supporters.

However as I said earlier though the most important thing is that he has to win games it really is as simple as that. I hope the return of Morrison, Davis, Gardner, Maghoma, and Jutkiewicz will make a difference because most of the team’s physicality was missing against QPR and didn’t it show.

I really hope he does turn it around because if they suffer a few more losses they will be looking over their shoulders towards the wrong end of the table.

What I have found fantastic, but not surprising, is that the supporters continue to sing and cheer at each home game despite the dreadful run of results. The team have never needed the backing more than they do at this time.

The other side of football!!

My guest on the Goalzone programme on Made in Birmingham TV earlier this month was former Blues and baggies striker Geoff Horsfield.

Geoff as many know was a laugh a minute man who loved the social side of football but now spends all his time helping the homeless in the area. He has started the Geoff Horsfield Foundation which buys and renovates houses to home those who are living on the streets with the aim to provide quality, safe and secure supported accommodation for vulnerable adults.

The Horse is not just a figurehead but is hands on and does much of the renovating himself. And is on call 24/7 taking calls from agencies who have a homeless person who needs help. Aside from that important role he is also out and about collecting furniture and clothing donations. Geoff is as passionate about this as he ever was about football and he talks knowledgeably about mental illness as this is closely aligned to homelessness.

Geoff deserves great credit for the work he is doing but not only credit but also our thanks for doing something positive and tackling a growing problem in such a fantastic way. Check out the Geoff Horsfield Foundation on Twitter and facebook-well done Geoff.

On Saturday 50 families will be treated to a day out at St Andrews to watch Blues play Queens Park Rangers thanks to the generosity of midfielder Craig Gardner. He has paid out of his own pocket for those fans to come to the game when they probably could not afford to go to as a family.

It’s great to see the other caring side of professional footballers well done to them both-class acts.