West Brom lost at the death to promotion rivals Middlesbrough at the Riverside tonight, and Baggies fans were fuming after watching Chris Brunt play in the centre of midfield.
The Baggies were poor in the first 45 but came back into the game in the second half and the 1-0 scoreline was perhaps harsh on them, with neither side really doing enough to justify taking all three.
However, Middlesbrough’s Daniel Ayala nabbed the goal in the 91st minute to break Baggies’ hearts and put Tony Pulis’ side top of the league.
Brunt struggled throughout in his central midfield role and kinder fans said that while they love their skipper, he shouldn’t be played there.
Other fans weren’t so charitable and called for Darren Moore to drop him, said he was “actually useless” and accused him of having a “shocker”.
The left-sided player has played all four Championship games this season in the centre and fans want Moore to put a halt to the fairly long-running experiment now.
Here are the best reactions from disgruntled West Brom fans:
Someone please tell brunt that the match has kicked off????
— ian hollingworth (@ianholl40_ian) August 24, 2018
@wba how does brunt keep getting in the team at CM, please help us by explaining why? I don’t get it #wba
— Jack Davis (@jddd2) August 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/AndyLeeman91/status/1033070289872187392
https://twitter.com/futboIalf/status/1033069286464659456
What is brunt offering in midfield absolutely nothing
— Neil Waters (@neilwba10) August 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/KJG180/status/1033069141643735040
Get Brunt off, now.
— Stevo (@steevo_08) August 24, 2018
Brunt shocking again
— Lewis Botfield (@BotfieldLewis) August 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/GxyIe/status/1033065383039782912
Brunt is having a shocker.
— Gemma ? (@Gemmabaggies) August 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/Jon_Davies93/status/1033070500883226626
We're basically playing with 10 men Brunt is having another shocker. Looks knackered too #WBA
— Adam Boden (@24adam09) August 24, 2018
OPINION
Brunt has been at West Brom since 2007 and has made 378 appearances for the Baggies, scoring 47 goals and registering 82 assists. He’s got a lot of goodwill at the club and has been a brilliant player for them, but fans are losing patience with him in the centre of midfield. To be fair to Moore he was being played there before he took over last April and they went on a really good run at the tail-end of the season in the Premier League with him there too. However, it could well be time to try something else. West Brom looked bereft of ideas tonight and Middlesbrough should have scored at least one other goal in the first-half.