West Brom defensive block?

[Carlb5253]

What are peoples thoughts on a West Brom block? Their first 7 fixtures are as easy as anybody elses.

Foster, Evans and McAuley at 4.5 each?

[TheBigLewandowski]

Gone with Foster and Evans. Evans was fantastic for us (NI) at the Euros.

[DelR]

Foster and Dawson for me, Dawson always a threat at set pieces etc

Derek

[acruxen]

Never been a fan of defensive blocks, especially at this stage of the season. You need to diversify your defence to reduce risk. I would only consider a semi-block later in the season when we have more information on solid defences e.g. Southampton 2014/15.

[sstaffsw]

West Brom have been poor during pre-season. Pretty sure they conceded in all their first team games apart from a 0-0 against Plymouth, so I don't think I would be picking any Albion defensive players right now.

[CarlosTheFinger]

I'm going for it. Foster, Evans and McAuley.

If, like me, you've decided to plough as much money as you can into reliable midfield and attack options and have to get defenders at 4.5, they seem to be the best value. Whenever I've had expensive defenders and assumed they'll play every week and keep a decent amount of clean sheets, I've always ended up rejigging the defence and getting cheaper options in to fund more attacking moves.

This time, I'm planning on tinkering with defence as little as possible. Pulis is the consistent element here in assuming they will continue to be sound defensively. There's no way he will ever accept a team which doesn't go all out to keep clean sheets. Granted, they may not have the quality to do it as consistently as Chelsea etc. but that's what you pay for. I won't be annoyed when they concede but those clean sheets (10 last season) will be moments of glory.

If a raft of cheap consistent options appear in attack, I'll go back and upgrade but I'll be going this way to start with for sure. That said, I am a Palace season-ticket holder, so will be hoping the block doesn't work very well on Saturday.

[Paulista]

Just looking ahead to the next gameweek here, West Brom have a decent home game against Bournemouth.

Now that Evans is back, albeit only from the bench yesterday as he gets back to fitness, is it likely that Dawson or Nyom drop out of defence? (Surely McAuley the 50 year old goal machine is nailed). Or is it more likely that Brunt reverts to midfield, meaning one of Chadli/Phillips/Morrison drops out?

Chadli rarely gets more than 60 minutes, not sure if that's a fitness issue because he's in my opinion the most skillful of the West Brom midfielders. Evans came on for him yesterday after 53 minutes, so I can only assume that Brunt went to midfield on 53 minutes, but can't find written conformation of that, only by looking at a heatmap. Phillips hasn't done anything FPL wise in weeks, but maybe he's still actually playing well on the pitch. Morrison has scored 3 in the last 6 so I don't think he would drop out.

There's nothing like starting a Sunday morning thinking about West Brom tactics over coffee.

[Joccki_10]

I was also thinking that there could be a chance of Phillips missing out of a starting spot next gameweek.

However, I'm definitely not gonna go for a defensive block of The Baggies. Extra transfer now and an extra transfer after GW28, as their fixtures turn really bad.