Kevin Phillips: Players must stand up for their bosses

Such fan unrest does not surprise me – it has been coming, for a good while.

The fans are getting increasingly frustrated at The Hawthorns.

They have not been happy for a long time with the style of football that is being played down there and, of course, it is intensifying with the bad run of results.

There were chants such as ‘Tony Pulis, get out of our club’ as they lost 1-0 at Huddersfield on Saturday.

Over the years, we have seen Tony clearly knows what he is doing – he keeps teams in the Premier League.

It is 10 games without a win now across all competitions though, and losing away at Huddersfield – a team that has just been promoted, against the experience and know-how of the Baggies – is a bad result.

Sometimes you just cannot put your finger on why it is not working.

I have been involved in many teams where that has been the case.

Here at Derby, we had just won four games and then got beat quite comfortably, 4-2 at home by Reading, on Saturday and you wonder how.

The squad Albion have got, you would expect them to go to the John Smith’s Stadium and at least get a point.

Ultimately, it boils down to the players – they have to take responsibility.

The senior pros there have got to look at themselves.

Salomon Rondon has got all the tools but, ever since he has been at the club, has not gone on a run to convince everyone that he is a top quality striker.

Jay Rodriguez seemed a slight gamble with his injury record.

A lot of people wondered whether he would come back the same player he was before he got injured.

And at the moment, you would not say that he has.

The players need to stand up and be counted, they need to start performing to try to take the heat off their manager.

A change in system may be required.

Albion have been quite defensive, with a 5-3-2 formation, and that is symptomatic of not winning football matches – you try to shut up shop, be solid and hard to beat.

Even during their successful period last season though, they were still pretty defensive-minded. It just gets highlighted more when you are losing.

Being a bit more attack-minded – putting a back four, two wingers in and a midfielder that can bomb on and help out the front two – might do the trick.

But, at the end of the day, Tony has a lot more experience than myself.

Something needs to change, it is obvious.

Supporters are not happy and the media are getting on the back of Tony as well now.

If performances continue as they have been, speculation over his future will only continue to grow.

Supporters seem to have had enough so it will be interesting to see how things pan out over the coming weeks.

For me, Tony and his players are having a bad run, nobody can dispute that, but it is not all doom and gloom.

They do not get beat by an awful lot, they only ever lose by the odd goal.

Tony will be working hard on the training ground to try to turn things around and the players there are capable of doing that.

Another manager under pressure is Walsall’s Jon Whitney, following their FA Cup exit at the hands of Newport County.

Whitney came out afterwards and said: “I’m accountable but so are some of my players as well.”

He went on to say that he ‘cannot keep carrying the can for them’.

I agree with that 100 per cent, I have no problem with a manager coming out at times and throwing his players under the bus.

Why not? There is nothing wrong with giving them a bit of honesty.

Jon will know, as the manager, he will take a lot of flak but at the end of the day, when you pick those 11 players, it is down to them once they cross that white line.

They need to show him more.

We are seeing it all across the leagues at the moment, an awful lot of managers being under pressure.

We are getting to that stage of the season now where chairmen are looking to pull the trigger if results are not going to plan.

In the Premier League, there are three or four managers under real pressure – and I do not want to see clubs act hastily.

You want to see them stick with their bosses, although sometimes you simply have to act, change things.

I am sure, over the next week or so, we probably will see some comings and goings in the Football League.