West Bromwich Albion travelled to the City Ground to face Nottingham Forest in our second Championship fixture of the 2018/19 campaign yesterday evening.
The game was far from great, and we had to fight back from a goal behind with Matty Phillips saving our blushes with only a couple of minutes remaining in the game as we avoided dropping to back to back defeats, but the final ten minutes of the match certainly gave rise to hope that things would soon click for head coach Darren Moore as he goes through his full maiden campaign in the hot seat.
With a number of poor performances across the 90 minutes, long-serving Chris Brunt was deployed in a more central midfield role, and fans were less than impressed with his efforts and both he and Jake Livermore struggled against our opposition.
Brunt is, unfortunately, an easy go-to when frustrations are high though and he was far from our worst player on the night in my humble, but he wasn’t great. Some players are easier to pan than others when they have a history.
One thing is for certain we can’t go all season with brunt in the middle
— Chris Ryan ???????????????????????????? (@ChrisWB4) August 7, 2018
We need legs in the middle. That’s more than obvious for anyone, Brunt can not play that role. He’s a proper liability there these days. #wba
— Andy Leeman (@AndyLeeman91) August 7, 2018
Brunt having an absolute mare and nobody getting ahead of the ball. As bad as anything last season at the moment
— Matt Wilkes (@MattW1lkes) August 7, 2018
When Chris Brunt can’t pass or cross then what’s the point of him? #wba
— Gunga (@GungaWBA) August 7, 2018
100% mate. A lot of our fans seem to have sentimental issues
— Gunga (@GungaWBA) August 7, 2018
Personally never thought passing was his game. Crossing/set pieces yes. His strength is out wide on the left always has been either as lb or lm
— Carl Sawyer (@baggiecarl) August 7, 2018
Brunt literally has no idea what hes doing
— Callum Burns (@CallumWBA) August 7, 2018
Brunt can’t play CM he is a passenger
— Stuart Hunt (@huntywbafc) August 7, 2018