Danny Wright

Fri 4 February 2022 10:10, UK

Newcastle United fans have been making it very clear to West Brom supporters what they can expect from new manager Steve Bruce.

On Thursday, the 61-year-old was appointed as Valerien Ismael’s success in the managerial hot seat at The Hawthorns.

It’s led to an understandably mixed reaction from Albion fans, some of whom are happy to have hired an experienced manager who has a track record of winning promotions from the Championship. While others are concerned that Bruce’s style of football will be just as much of an eyesore as Ismael’s was.

While we’re not expecting to tiki-taka our way to promotion, you have to understand that different styles of play exist in the game and that all styles can look bad when they’re not yielding results.

One thing that Bruce will probably do at The Hawthorns is to make the most of Ismael’s January signing Andy Carroll, who was released by Newcastle while Bruce was at St James’ Park last summer.

Carroll, 33, has joined the Baggies on a deal until the end of the season after Daryl Dike, who was bought at the start of January from Orlando City, was hit with a two-month-long injury layoff.

The former England, West Ham, Liverpool and Newcastle striker, who spent the first half of the season at Reading, was thrown straight into the deep end and played 90 minutes of the 2-0 defeat to Millwall that led to Ismael’s sacking.

West Brom face Sheffield United next at Bramall Lane on Wednesday [9 February] – and we may start to see Bruce really unleashing the strengths that Carroll possesses.

While the target man was overlooked by him plenty of times at Newcastle, Carroll has strengths that kind of suit Bruce’s style of football and also the fellow attackers at West Brom.

In Karlan Grant, Grady Diangana and Callum Robinson, Bruce has inherited a bunch of attackers who like to cut inside from the wings and in Carroll, he has someone to supply them with assists.

In the 2019/20 season, Carroll won a staggering 60.8 per cent of his aerial duels [Wyscout] and ended up assisting five goals for the Magpies.

It’s not a remarkable number, but that was while playing for a team that was up against it most of the season and wasn’t blessed with great attackers.

West Brom’s biggest problem this season has been their lack of goals and while many would assume one of Ismael’s flaws as being him playing ‘hoofball’, at least if that style of play is utilised now, it will have a purpose and will have Carroll at the top end of the pitch to latch onto aerial balls and feed in his teammates.

Jordan Hugill and Kenneth Zohore were useless at it and when faced with a goal the size of a house in front of them, you’d still bet on the ball finding the Brummie Road behind it.

Carroll’s not just a big lump in the air, he’s also a proven finisher. His two goals – as well as two spectacular disallowed goals – for Reading in the first half of this season shouldn’t be ignored.

Listen, it’s hard to get excited by the club signing Carroll and then days later hiring Bruce as the manager – but it’s what we’ve got now.

Whether you’re for it or totally against it, it’s down to Bruce to find a way to get this squad of players scoring and winning matches again.

And it’s down to us to play our role as the 12th man and really make The Hawthorns a stadium that teams don’t like turning up to again.

In other West Brom news, John Percy has shared an interesting clause in Bruce’s new contract at The Hawthorns.