FanView: Don't Tell Desperate West Brom Fans to Be Careful What to Wish for
The Baggies Head Coach, Tony Pulis, is under increasing scrutiny from Albion's faithful after yet another abysmal performance away to Huddersfield at the weekend.
Team selection, substitutions, tactics and general lack of any hope for us West Brom fans to cling onto have all contributed to the overwhelming sense of despondency amongst the supporters, who were not shy in voicing their wish for Pulis to leave at the John Smith's stadium.
But of course, in the words of numerous football pundits: 'Be careful what you wish for'. More specifically, BBC Radio 5 Live presenter, Jason Mohammad, who promptly tweeted this after West Brom fans voiced the disapproval of our head coach.
It's not just him, either. Paul Merson and co on Soccer Saturday are all riding the 'careful what you wish for' bandwagon without really looking deeper into the issue at hand. 15 points from 23 games is just the start of our disgruntlement - to put it lightly.
What we can't deny, and many must be pointing to, is the credible job Pulis did at stabilising the club, and others alike, at a time where we had no hope.
The appointment of Alan Irvine and the run of poor results that followed saw him axed after 22 games, with a win percentage of just over 22%. Comparing that to current man at the helm, it doesn't make for pretty reading. The 'survival specialist' Pulis boasts a win percentage of 13.6% over his last 22 games.
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Interestingly though, it's not these statistics that fully encapsulate the brunt of our frustrations. In fact, I don't think there are statistics that can truly embody the feeling of hopelessness and disheartenment at the Albion at the moment.
Since March, Albion have played 23 Premier League games, in which they have accumulated 64 shots on target. This averages out at one shot on target every 34 minutes. It probably comes as no surprise, then, that The Baggies have only scored 16 times during that period.
Perhaps more alarmingly still, since March we have also conceded 33 goals under the tenure of a manager who prides his work on defensive masterclasses. What makes for even more shocking reading is the fact that he has managed just six clean sheets in 66 games.
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Few goals and few clean sheets has sucked the life out of an enthusiastic, passionate and loyal fan-base - and we haven't even got started on the team selection and playing style.
Saturday saw Albion line up with five defenders, three defensive-midfielders and two attackers. It doesn't take an expert to tell you there is no width in a team without any wide players, all of which were sat on the bench up until the hour mark, where it took the dismissal of Huddersfield's Christopher Schindler to initiate Pulis to make attacking changes. More to this, recently-fit-again and £15-million-winger, Oliver Burke, was left out entirely.
For Pulis though, "injuries are to blame" for the shoddy performances despite having a near fully-fit squad, comprising of Premier League winners, players with Champions League pedigree and a Europa League winner in Grzegorz Krychowiak.
Some may say he has the team he wants, and arguably the best squad of players the Albion has witnessed since the days of Ron Atkinson. Why, then, is it impossible for these pundits to envisage a stable West Brom team, full of attacking potential, that doesn't sit 11 players behind the ball for 90 minutes?
How can it be that newly-promoted Brighton and bottom-of-the-Championship Sunderland have more Premier League away wins in 2017 than we do? In fact, since the tail-end of 2016, The Baggies have only mustered 38 points from 36 games - the kind of form that screams relegation.
Points are going to be very hard to come by too, with upcoming games against Chelsea (home) and Spurs (away) to come directly after the international break. It has been rumoured that the Albion owner, Guochuan Lai, will be in attendance for the Chelsea game as mounting pressure builds on the West Brom boss.
