Championship

West Bromwich Albion: Joseph Masi claims fans are within their right to want better football

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Image for West Bromwich Albion: Joseph Masi claims fans are within their right to want better football

Joseph Masi has been speaking about how West Brom fans are allowed to demand better football on the Baggies Broadcast podcast.

It all appeared to be going perfectly for West Brom under Valerien Ismael in the Championship as they won three of their opening four league games managing to score 11 goals in the process but in their last three Championship fixtures, they’ve found the back of the net just twice.

Will West Brom achieve promotion?

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Yes!

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Their latest was a 0-0 draw at home to Derby County which frustrated fans, especially as it was against a side that were only able to sign free agents over the summer. The frustration is seemingly stemming from their inability to score as they managed 25 shots against the Rams but couldn’t find that killer instinct.

Masi gave his thoughts on how West Brom fans are allowed to be asking for better football (19:58):

“I certainly don’t think they were deserved [boos at halftime] in the fact that Albion are top of the league. But from what I gather, and I think this is the issue with that, Albion are playing, we’re supposed to call it vertical football, Val likes to call it vertical football, we all know it’s direct football.

“There are fans, a lot of fans and this is their absolute right, they don’t want to pay for that football, they do not want to see that football every week. And I think this is where the split is, there’s a lot of people who, all I want is, I’m results based so I want Albion to go up I’ll take it by hook or by crook.

“I think that with Ismael there’s a chance they could cause an upset in the Premier League with this high-intensity style of play. So that’s what I’m sort of looking towards. Can we get up and can we then stay up?

“I think Ismael has got the potential to do that. So I’m completely behind him, here’s a lot of fans who based on the style of play are not. And he is playing not a dangerous game, but he will know that his style of play doesn’t yield you time.”

TIF Thoughts on West Brom’s form…

As Masi stated his thoughts of things just being results-based, that is really all that matters in the Championship if you’re aiming for the Premier League. The history books and results don’t say how you played football, it just lets you know who won and Albion fans should be taking that into account.

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An easy one to kick off our quiz on the 2020 summer transfer window in the EFL, which player left Birmingham City to join Borussia Dortmund?

Also, they must remember that Ismael is still only eight games into his tenure at the Hawthorns, so expecting him to have everything sorted out with multiple tactics and plans nailed down with the players is unreasonable to say the least, especially when they are going from a team under Sam Allardyce and his style of play to one under Ismael.

In other news: ‘Shouldn’t be starting’ – Many West Brom fans rip into ‘anonymous’ £7.2m-rated ace

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