Speaking on the Baggies Broadcast, Joseph Masi has claimed that Valerien Ismael isn’t currently getting the most out of the West Brom squad.
The disgruntlement has come about since the Baggies’ form took a turn for the worse, although it’s still not even terrible as they are still unbeaten in the Championship – but have only won once in their last four matches, scoring just three goals in that time.
Do you think teams have worked out how to play against West Brom?
Yes
No
There appears to be a stark contrast from the beginning of the campaign to now in terms of results and goals scored, although little appears to have changed, with Ismael persisting with the same 3-4-3 formation which yielded great results earlier this campaign, but with two of their next three matches against teams currently inside the top eight, Ismael must get more out of the players to produce better results.
Masi spoke about how he trusts Ismael, but knows the manager isn’t getting the most of the players.
“It is vertical football, it is direct football, it’s a fair question to ask: is Ismael getting the best out of these footballers? At this moment in time, I would say he isn’t.
“But I truly believe he will, I truly believe he was getting pretty much the best out of them in the first four or five games, and they’ve had a blip after three. We’ve got to judge him after 10 games, 15 games, 20 games – I just think you’ve got to give the bloke some time.
“The last three games I’ve been disappointed, there’s no doubt about it. If they’d set up differently, could they have got better results? Yes, they probably could have.”
TIF Thoughts on West Brom…
As it stands, the Baggies are third and only outside of the automatic promotion spots via goal difference having had some tough fixtures already, after picking up four points from Bournemouth and Sheffield United – so they’re clearly going to be competing at the right end of the table come May.
It’s natural that fans are unhappy with the results, as they have drawn against Derby County, who have a mountain of problems off the pitch and newly promoted Peterborough United – and those are the types of games Baggies fans would perhaps expect their team to win. However, given the league season is still just eight games old, there should be no need for panic or anger towards the manager and club.