During the latest edition of the Baggies Broadcast podcast, Joseph Masi spent some time talking about West Bromwich Albion boss Sam Allardyce’s team talk following West Brom’s penalty shootout loss to Blackpool this past weekend in the FA Cup.
This game finished 2-2 at the end of extra time, with Matheus Pereira and Semi Ajayi scoring for the Baggies and Blackpool’s striking duo Jerry Yates and Gary Madine netting for the home side.
Per Masi, Allardyce was “livid” with his players in the dressing room after this FA Cup loss to a side that currently sits in 13th place in League One – two divisions below Albion, who sit inside of the Premier League’s relegation zone at present.
The journalist said: “From what I understand, Allardyce really, really laid into the players at full time. He was quite calm with the press, he always is; he’s very sort of friendly with the press, upbeat, he likes to get his personality across and have a bit of banter, really.
“From what I gather, he wasn’t calm with the players, he was absolutely livid.”
Was Allardyce right to be livid?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what Masi revealed about Allardyce…
In addition to their failure to beat a League One side in 120 minutes of football, Albion were given a match rating of 6.51 by WhoScored for their performance versus Blackpool, which was lower than the Seasiders’ match rating of 6.81, indicating that Blackpool may have been the better side on the day in terms of their performance and deservedly knocked their Premier League opposition out of the competition.
It certainly seems as though Allardyce judged that to be the case, based on what Masi revealed during this podcast and it may be difficult to blame the 66-year-old for reacting to this loss how he did, with Albion’s squad valued £92.74m higher than Blackpool’s squad, per Transfermarkt, highlighting the gulf in quality between these two teams.
Whether or not the manager’s words will have a positive impact on his squad, however, remains to be seen.