Tony Brown blasted Jay Rodriguez after West Brom’s 4-1 defeat to Derby at The Hawthorns on Wednesday night after the centre-forward gifted the away side an easy opening goal.
Rodriguez, 29, had a nightmare start to the game when his poor pass back to goalkeeper Sam Johnstone was intercepted by Jack Marriott, who hit the ball first time to put the Rams ahead.
It hardly got better for the ex-Southampton forward even though he scored Albion’s last consolation goal, and Hawthorns legend Brown suggested that his lack of concentration early on lead to Derby running away with the win.
“I thought they started off quite brightly,” Brown said on BBC WM 95.6 on Wednesday night. “They pressed Derby back, they went for the advantage and tried looking for that first goal.
“And then, as we know, the disaster from Rodriguez set the trend for the rest of the game for Derby.
“He’s put them in the driving seat and they took advantage of it.”
OPINION
West Brom were all over the place against Derby and that kind of result was coming given how poorly Darren Moore’s side has played this season. Albion may be fourth in the Championship table and the highest scorers in the division, but their defence is just shocking. Ipswich, who are bottom, have conceded the same amount as the Baggies while second-from-bottom Hull have conceded less. It just doesn’t add up when you consider this is a side that was known for it’s defence in the Premier League and Moore was a no-nonsense centre-back in his playing days. What West Brom’s issue is their style of play and how it fails to suit their players. They try to play it out the back when it is clear that Craig Dawson and co aren’t capable of doing that. Rodriguez had a shocker against the Rams and may find himself dropped very soon because his form is only made to look better by the amount of penalties he has scored this season.