‘They’ll want to make a change’ – Ex-West Brom POTY winner admits Bilic should be sacked
Garry Thompson reluctantly admits West Brom should sack manager Slaven Bilic after the 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday.
After 12 matches, Albion find themselves second from bottom in the Premier League with just one win and six points to their name.
Bilic’s men picked up just three points from their last three matches which saw them face Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and Newcastle but now face a nightmarish run to end 2020 with games against Manchester City, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Leeds coming up.
With it unlikely that West Brom will do much to strengthen their survival bid around Christmas and the New Year, calls for Bilic to be sacked grew louder after the 2-1 defeat at St James’ Park last week.
After Adrian Goldberg said he thinks a change is necessary at West Brom, the radio broadcaster asked ex-Albion striker Thompson to share his stance on Bilic’s future at The Hawthorns.
The 1984/85 player of the year winner told The Liquidator podcast: “Reluctantly, I find myself agreeing with you.
“We spoke yesterday about it and I was like ‘it’s too early to be sacking Slaven’. But since you’ve been saying, I’ve seen a few of the Albion games, I’ve seen a lot of highlights as well.
“Now, last season he had a feel for the game and if he knew something was wrong, he’d change it quite early on and he would get results. This season, you’ve gone up to the Premier League, you’ve gone up a level, you’ve got to be bringing in players to cope at that level.
“He didn’t get the help from the board but you’ve still got to be organised and the one thing that’s worried me is they didn’t seem to be too organised. One thing a coach should be able to do is organise his team. Good or bad, he should watch the team and say ‘we got beat because of this but we are in a reasonable shape’.
“And also, when Aston Villa went down and [Roberto] Di Matteo came in, after six or seven games he kept changing the team. He went three at the back, then he changed it again. When a manager starts second-guessing himself and throwing people in hoping something is going to stick, they are grasping – they’re struggling.
“If you’re getting to that point then maybe you have to start looking to bring someone else in.
“From everything I’ve heard about Slav, he’s a top, top bloke. But if you’re not winning games then people will turn around and say regardless of how well you’ve done, we want to stay in this division and therefore, they’ll want to make a change.”
No-win situation for anyone at The Hawthorns
Bilic’s contract expires at the end of the season and with the club 19th in the table, we understand why West Brom wouldn’t offer him a new deal at this stage.
Why offer a new contract to a manager who has seen his side win just one of their last 16 league games? That’s almost half of a Premier League season with just one – very narrow – victory.
Albion staggered their way to promotion and are tumbling their way back down to the Championship with a manager who seems just as disillusioned with his superiors as his players are.
Bilic has always been seen as someone who is more of a motivator than a tactician. Tactically, West Brom have been inept this season. Bilic’s system keeps changing, as do the players in the starting line-up. We also saw in the Crystal Palace game that the manager is struggling to motivate his men.
West Brom face Manchester City away at the Etihad on Tuesday night and there is absolutely zero expectation of the Baggies getting a result.
It will be interesting to see how the side does with less pressure on their shoulders but we’re at a point where spirited performances won’t cut it.
We need results now and the crux of the matter is that Bilic is not getting them.
In other West Brom news, fans tore this player to shreds for his performance against Newcastle.
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