Exclusive: Super Kev slams West Brom players over issue that’s left fans scratching their heads
We’re delighted to welcome former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns…
West Brom fans have been left baffled by the players’ performances in recent weeks with Albion securing brilliant draws away at Manchester City and Liverpool, only to suffer heavy home defeats to lesser teams.
Man City and Liverpool are arguably the two best teams in the Premier League but neither were able to beat Albion in Slaven Bilic’s final game as manager and Sam Allardyce’s first away game respectively.
As good as those results were, they were surrounded by ridiculously bad performances at The Hawthorns with Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Leeds United and Arsenal all winning and scoring 17 goals between them.
Ex-West Brom striker Kevin Phillips has slammed West Brom’s players for going into games against the likes of Leeds thinking they don’t need to try as hard as they do at places like the Etihad or Anfield.
“It’s a mentality thing,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“From my experience, you go to Anfield and you’re excited about going to a big stadium, you’re playing the best team in the land and you raise your game.
“They obviously got themselves up for that game but could you put it down to fatigue and tiredness (for the Leeds game)? No, I won’t because Leeds picked the same team in two games and look at the energy they showed.
“You can’t use that as an excuse.
“It must be a mentality thing – ‘yes, they’re a good side but we don’t have to perform at the levels we did up at Anfield because we feel we’ve got enough to win it’. Well, unfortunately, you haven’t’.”
Since beating Sheffield United 1-0 at The Hawthorns on November 28, West Brom have won just two points out of 21 available and both of those points were in 1-1 draws away at Man City and Liverpool.
It’s baffling that the players can perform at a higher level and actually show some kind of defensive grit when coming up against the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah, Raheem Sterling and Sadio Mane.
But when they’re faced with players like Christian Benteke, Stuart Dallas and Ezgjan Alioski, they seem to forget how to actually play football.
There’s no disrespect intended towards those players and those teams who’ve won at The Hawthorns in the last month or so. But West Brom’s players have a lot of questions to answer because right now, the fans’ love for the squad is at an all-time low.
In other West Brom news, Alan Shearer has made a transfer claim about the Baggies.
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