David Prutton says more focus should be on West Brom players amid poor form

David Prutton has held the West Brom players responsible for the team’s poor run in form. 

The Baggies made the announcement earlier today to part ways with Valerien Ismael after just one win in their last seven Championship games.

A host of names are being mentioned to replace the Frenchman at the Hawthorns but Prutton believes more focus should be put on the players.

“It’s even more startling when you look at the personnel involved, names that have played at higher levels, names that have been very effective at this level of football,” said Prutton in Sky Sports’ EFL podcast.

“Something is not right. Goalscoring has clearly been a problem.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a case of Valerien being found out because what he managed to do with Barnsley shows someone who is very capable of getting something better out of a group of players.

“There is a very unique skill to that. To say it is because he’s got a bunch of players who don’t want to play his football is too easy. It’s more nuanced than that.

“He’s not wet behind the ears, he knows what he’s doing, he’s got enough experience as a manager to know if it isn’t working, something needs to give.

"On top of that, that squad of players – talent-wise, experience-wise – is doing nowhere near what it should be doing, and they need to take responsibility, as well as the manager."

Simply not good enough

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. 

Prutton has got a valid point, Ismael has picked up a lot of the flack – rightly so – but many of the players seem to have got away scot-free. 

It would be interesting to see how many of Albion’s players can genuinely say they’ve given everything for the club this season, probably not many. 

The Baggies have a host of high-quality professionals, many of which have played in the Premier League so the standards they set themselves should be a lot higher.

It hasn’t been good enough in any department at West Brom for several months now but make no mistake, Ismael had to go. 

As much as the players needed to step up, they needed a helping hand. Whether that was a change in personnel, tactics or formation, Ismael needed to try something new and he didn’t. 

You can’t repeatedly try the same methods and expect different results. 

In other Baggies news, Robert Snodgrass send emotional farewell to West Brom following January exit.