Will West Brom's real leader please stand up?
Less than one year ago, West Bromwich Albion rocked up at Stamford Bridge to humble the now-reigning European champions in their own backyard.
It was a performance of swagger, dominance, and togetherness.
Roll on 11 months, and things couldn’t be further from that Saturday afternoon in West London, writes Boing Cast founder Alex Newton.
The 2-0 defeat at home to Swansea was a microcosm of Albion’s season. No swagger, no dominance, no togetherness, and most importantly, no leadership.
You will always have bad runs in the Championship. It’s the nature of the league – anybody can beat anybody on their day.
It’s often the clubs that find answers to those bad runs that end up occupying the top six spaces at the end of the season.
Albion not only don’t seem to have any answers, but they don’t seem to want to find them either.
The board are finally getting punished for years of doing things on the cheap.
Steve Bruce, despite only being here for a handful of games, already seems to be walking the plank, and for whatever reason, the team isn’t responding to his ideas.
Valerien Ismael’s reluctance to change game plans and tactics eventually cost him his job.
The players had switched off to his ideas and it appears to be happening under Bruce too.
My biggest issue falls on the players that should feel honoured to pull on the famous blue and white every weekend.
One too many times this season, they’ve gone into hiding and nobody, one through to 11, wants to stand up and take accountability.
Who wants to take a hold of this situation?
Who’s the one to stand up and say this isn’t good enough?
So-called ‘captain’ Jake Livermore spends more time suspended than on the field.
The defence stands like rabbits in headlights after every goal conceded.
The midfield couldn’t pass a question on Mastermind at the moment.
The forwards look disinterested and shot of confidence.
There’s only one direction this club is heading, and it isn’t up.
The only part of the club working together is the fans by not going to the games.
Whether it’s the board, the manager or the players, somebody needs to finally step up and say this isn’t good enough.
Time for some leadership.
