After months of preparations including carefully planned training, player purchasing and team building it must be difficult when the whole thing crumbles like a poorly constructed house of cards, built on sand, in hurricane season. Well that’s what happened to West Brom last night in their season opener against Manchester City at The Hawthorns, before they knew it they were 2-0 down after being overrun in the middle thanks largely to some slick passing by a reinvigorated City side for whom David Silva was omnipresent while Yaya Toure, when going forward at least, looked dangerous and motivated.
Maybe it’s because next Sunday's game against Chelsea, which is live and exclusive on Off the Ball, we’re not focusing on City’s brilliance but the collapse of the Baggies who has 3 debutants and a more ambitious system on display last night. Normally after such poor showing a manager will give standard sound bites about being outclassed by a bigger outfit and maybe even bemoan one or two game changing decisions by the referee however we’re glad to say Tony Pulis didn’t hide behind such clichés last night. The former Crystal Palace and Stoke manager started with a four four two formation as he wanted to get new signing Rickie Lambert and sought after striker Saido Berahino into the game but in hindsight he admits that was the wrong approach; “sometimes as a manager you hold your hand up. I wanted to play Saido and Rickie tonight but it goes against everything I’ve ever done against the bigger teams. I take responsibility. It’s not the players it’s me”.
West Brom's Rickie Lambert, is held back by Manchester City's Bacary Sagna, during the English Premier League match between West Bromwich Albion and Manchester City at the Hawthorns. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Derry’s James Mc Clean had a tough and short lived debut the Ireland winger was subbed at half time and replaced by defensive midfielder Claudio Jacob. Again Pulis wasn’t too harsh on McClean explaining he brought Jacob on to shackle Silva "just to be a bit more solid, Silva was controlling the game and we never came to grips with that” . The former Palace and Stoke boss admits it’s a learning process for new boys McClean and Chester as well as Rickie Lambert. “ I think they’re all good players. McClean and Chester have to learn what we want from them Rickie was good tonight showed his potential he’ll be a good player for us".
Up next for West Brom are Watford away before they welcome Chelsea to The Hawthorns when it’s highly unlikely Tony Pulis will break from his norm again. He hasn’t ruled out playing four four two with Berahino and Lambert up front again at some stage however; “I wanted to be positive I’m not saying you can’t play the two of them against other sides but today when they’ve got that spare one on midfield and it happens to be Silva it causes you problems”.
With three weeks of the transfer window left Pulis admits they need reinforcements in at the back and in the middle of midfield, however their work on the forward unit appears done following the capture of Zenit St. Petersburg striker Jose Solomon Rondon. The 25 year old cost nearly seventeen million euro but the manager says he’s worth it even if he thinks it will take him time to acclimatise. “His goal scoring record is very good whether it was in Spain or Russia. It might take him time to get used to the pace of the Premier League but I think the crowd here will like him he’s a very hard working kid he likes to get in behind teams and if we’re going to play the way we want to play we like runners”.
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