Steve Bruce urges West Brom ace Jake Livermore to learn from red card
Steve Bruce has urged West Brom midfielder Jake Livermore to be smarter with his tackling upon his return from suspension.
The 32-year-old was sent off in the former Newcastle manager’s first game in charge of the Baggies which ended in defeat.
Bruce was adamant Livermore regrets the sending off that has left his Albion teammates in trouble.
“Jake has been full of remorse, upset, disappointed – but look, he has made his living and the reason why he got to the levels he got to where his ability to that,” he told Birmingham Live.
“He did it fantastically well for me when he was younger when I took him from Tottenham.
“He is somebody in midfield who breaks it up – that’s when he is at his best. But he can’t make that challenge, what comes very. very natural to him.
“He sees the ball wants to win it and will do everything possible to do that, he just has to refine it a little bit.
“I don’t think he has to reinvent himself, you can still be aggressive in your work, you have just got to stop that challenge where you go to ground basically.”
No chance
Livermore has spent most of his career being sent off for stupid challenges and that is very unlikely to change now.
He is a reckless player who probably could have done with playing in a different era where some of his challenges wouldn’t have been penalised.
Hopefully, Bruce can get through to the midfielder with their relationship going back more than a decade with the pair working together at Hull.
Alex Mowatt and Jason Molumbyhave done well in central midfield in the senior Englishman’s absence but as shocking as this may seem, Livermore’s return will give the team a huge boost.
That is seriously saying something about this West Brom team with everybody excited when he was suspended.
Hopefully, he has enough time to reflect during his ban and comes back raring to go.
The promotion push seems as good as gone but Bruce and the team will undoubtedly be fighting right until the end.
Who knows, a win this weekend could spark a last gasp push and Livermore being back in the side could help with that.
In other West Brom news, Steve Bruce gives a brutal assessment of his Albion players.
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