Following West Bromwich Albion’s turn in form in the Championship campaign of 2018/19, it appears head coach Darren Moore’s magic wand has been temporarily misplaced as we fell to a heavy defeat to Derby County on Wednesday evening.
Welcoming Frank Lampard’s side to The Hawthorns for the game, they took a very comfortable 4-1 victory on the day and Jay Rodriguez’s late strike was nothing more than a consolation. It was a day where what could go wrong did go wrong as we also lost Dwight Gayle at the halftime break to a knock.
The defeat does see us slip to only fourth place in the table so there shouldn’t be a massive meltdown, but with our attacking instincts deserting us and old defensive problems being highlighted, back to back defeats cannot be ignored.
Imagine thinking mears Bartley and adarabioyo are good… absolutely awful professionals. #wba
— Alex Hill (@OakesHill) October 24, 2018
Chris Brunt, Tyrone Mears, James Morrison, Hal Robson Kanu and people expect us to get promoted with them 4 in our line up? #wba
— ! (@dannydalyLK) October 24, 2018
Phillips has been thrown in due to fan pressure he isn’t match sharp, Mears and Kanu coming on well you may aswell just concede the game! Why have players like Sako if your going to pick Kanu who hasn’t done a thing all season? Will be hoping for better Saturday #wba #wbafc
— Adam (@adam_wba) October 24, 2018
Can't do anything about injuries but having Mears and HRK on the bench as first choice replacements is abysmal #wba
— Steve (@pennwba) October 24, 2018
Mears for Gibbs?!?! ???????????? #wba
— Ali (@alibottybot) October 24, 2018
Any team that brings on Tyrone Mears deserves to lose imo.
— Marsha (@Marsha1051) October 24, 2018
Replacing G Mac with Tyrone Mears and Kyle Bartley well well #wba
— Richard Downing (@rjdowning) October 24, 2018
As the above comments show, frustration is incredibly high amongst some in the fanbase and a number of the criticisms are fair game and valid. Others, not necessarily printed, are beyond me and I can only assume it’s an indication of the modern ‘perfection and everything now brigade’ or simply social media allows those who shout the loudest to get a wider audience.
Either way, we have issues in the team and everyone knows that but what some forget or ignore is that Moore is still learning on the job so those flip-flopping and decrying everything as they throw their toys out the pram, well, they’re only making themselves look silly to the majority of fans who accept you get ups and downs and what matters is whether we learn from them or not – it takes a bit of time, it’s not the latest computer game where you can cheat.