Jake Livermore must prove Steve Bruce right as West Brom leader in midfield
When Steve Bruce arrived at The Hawthorns in the final third of the Championship season, he promised change at West Brom that never came.
Valerien Ismael’s 3-4-3 system was expected to be ditched and poor results cast away as the Baggies pushed for a promotion place to get back into the Premier League at the first attempt.
Instead, they picked up just six wins from 17 games under Bruce and 3-4-3 continued to be the go-to system for much of the remainder of the campaign despite the results and the team ended up finishing in 10th – their lowest finish since the 1999/00 season.
The attention immediately turned to the new season once Bruce was confirmed to be staying on as manager, and hope grew once again that those changes would come.
They seem to be, with two fine attacking signings in John Swift and Jed Wallace confirmed by the club to show a change towards a more goal-threatening style.
But when you have a great attack, you need to have a solid defence to back it up and let it work and that often leaves the defensive midfielder as the most important cog in the team. Unfortunately for West Brom, that man is Jake Livermore.
Club captain Livermore has had some good games in the blue and white stripes, but far too regularly he has let the club down with his poor disciplinary record and rash decisions.
With the armband still set to be his next season, that starting berth in the midfield also looks likely to be his too and he now must turn a corner to convince fans that Bruce is right not to make him a casualty of the changes that are coming.
That means keeping his composure at all times throughout the season. That means rallying the team when they’re struggling and not playing well. That means helping the young players like Taylor Gardner-Hickman to shine rather than sink if it’s going badly.
But it also means taking responsibility on the pitch to just keep things simple and give others the platform to take the glory.
At 32-years-old Livermore isn’t a spring chicken anymore, but he can still adapt and learn. His job is to be the man everyone else can rely on, so they can do their jobs to the best of their ability.
He must prove to fans that he is still capable of doing that, and that he’s worthy of not just wearing the captain’s armband for the team but to wear the club shirt at all.
In other West Brom news, this could be Steve Bruce’s dream XI to face Middlesbrough on the opening day