Analysis: West Brom fail to deliver again when pressure is on

Last Tuesday, with no expectation on their shoulders, the Baggies put in a brilliant display to beat league leaders Fulham.

The Cottagers are the best team in the Championship.

But the aggression, energy and determination Albion played with ensured they ran out deserved winners at The Hawthorns.

The problem is we know these players can perform when the pressure is off.

In their Premier League last season, they got results against Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea.

When there is no expectation, they can be a match for anyone.

But elite sport isn’t about what you do when the pressure is off. It’s about having the strength of character to deliver when it matters.

Albion, though, have got too many players who are mentally weak.

Speaking, after the win over Fulham, Bruce immediately made clear how important this game at Bristol City had become.

“Now I’m going to put the pressure on us,” he said.

“We’ve got a huge game at Bristol City on Saturday. Can we go and repeat that kind of performance?”

The answer was a resounding no.

Albion were woeful in the first-half at Ashton Gate.

They didn’t play with the same tempo. They didn’t show the same hunger. And their quality was non-existent with simple passes going astray. It was just so flat.

For the best part of half-an-hour, Albion got away with it simply because Bristol City aren’t very good.

But they were then gifted the lead thanks to what Bruce described as ‘school boy’ defending.

In fairness to Andreas Weimann, the Austrian did send a dangerous low cross into the Albion boss.

But for some reason, nobody followed the run of Nakhi Wells.

And that meant he had the simplest of finishes from six-yards.

As has often been the case this season, Albion’s players then allowed their heads to drop.

And City could easily have been two up at the break.

Sam Johnstone made an excellent save to keep out a Rob Atkinson header.

Chris Martin put the ball over the bar when it was easier to score following a corner.

For the entire half, Bruce and his coaching spent their time shouting at the players or throwing their arms in the air in disbelief.

The drop off from Fulham had been staggering.

There was, though, a significant improvement after the break.

The Baggies played with more tempo and a greater urgency.

And they got back on terms when keeper Daniel Bentley accidentally punched Kyle Bartley in the face instead of punching clear the ball.

Referee Leigh Doughty had no choice but to point to the spot.

And Karlan Grant duly converted the penalty for his 14th goal of the season.

From that point it felt as though – if anyone was going to win it – it was going to be Albion.

But they showed how soft they are yet again by conceding another really poor goal.

It came from a simple free-kick on the halfway line which Bristol City just floated into the box.

But nobody in Albion colours won the first header.

And nobody won the second with Weimann firing in at the back post after Jake Livermore had switched off.

With Albion needing to win the game to still have an outside chance of gatecrashing the top six, that goal effectively ended their season.

But somehow they managed to snatch a point when substitute Adam Reach – just seconds after coming on – levelled the score with virtually the last kick of the game.

In fairness, that strike came from the best move of the game.

Callum Robinson produced a nice pass to find Livermore in the box.

And he then crossed first time for Reach to emphatically fire home.

But it was still too little, too late.

Not once had Albion got anywhere near the levels they showed against Fulham. And while, mathematically, they can still finish in the top six, there isn’t one supporter who believes they are good enough to put together that type of run.

Bruce, it seems, agrees – with the boss saying afterwards the mentality of Albion’s squad needs to change.

“That’s the thing that really disappoints me and that’s the thing we have to eradicate – our levels of performance go up and down far too quickly,” Bruce said, when asked to compare the Fulham and Bristol City performances.

“We have just seen it.

“We got to a good level again in the second half.

“And we wouldn’t have deserved to lose based on that second-half performance.

“But first-half was nowhere near good enough.

“It was nowhere near what we are capable of.

“That inconsistency is ultimately why I’m sat here and it’s something we have to change.

“We have to change the mentality, the mentality has to change, we have to find a winning mentality, you have to have that, especially in the Championship.

“In the first-half, in particular, we didn’t compete well enough, we didn’t win second challenges.”

Asked why Albion improved after the break, the boss said: “Our mentality changed.

“We took the ball better. We showed more composure. We got on it. The pitch was poor but second half we were much better and deserved to get the equaliser.

“I thought there would only be one team to win it and it would be us.

“But they have scored an awful goal from our point of view.”

Bruce was particularly disappointed with the goals his side conceded.

“They were poor goals, poor goals,” the boss continued.

“The second one is a big kick up the pitch into our area and we haven’t won the first one or the second one.

“It’s schoolboy stuff, especially when we have got three centre-halves on the pitch. Poor defending.”

Ultimately, Albion’s failure to wine at Ashton Gate – and their poor overall performance this season – comes down to their lack of leaders.

Skipper Livermore gets a lot of stick. But the former England man cares and tries to drive his team forward.

Aside from him, though, the lack of leadership in the squad is frightening.

And that is what has to be addressed this summer.

There are too many players at Albion who have been at the club too long and have contracts that have made them too comfortable.

And for the mentality to change, some of those players simply have to be moved on.

The sheer number of players on long term deals means the squad turnover won’t be as drastic as some supporters would like.

But if Albion can get rid of three of four, they can hopefully replaced them with some stronger characters who will drag everyone else along with them.

Characters like Andy Carroll – who despite being on a short term deal – has shown more fight than a lot of his team-mates since arriving on a short term deal in January.

Carroll wasn’t fit enough to play at Ashton Gate after picking up a knock against Fulham.

But speaking post-match, Bruce said he felt his team wouldn’t have conceded the goals they did if he had been on the pitch.

The fact Albion are so reliant on a 33-year-old, recent signing, for a bit of heart shows just how far they have fallen recently.

There may be eight games still to go but everyone, in their heart of hearts, knows Albion aren’t going to make the play-offs this year.

That’s not good enough. But at least when your season ends early, it gives you extra time to make changes and plan for the following year.

Because one thing is certain, Albion need lots of change.