Steve Bruce under ‘genuine pressure’ at West Brom after defeat v Birmingham City

Thu 15 September 2022 16:10, UK

Steve Bruce is feeling the heat at West Brom after overseeing a dreadful 3-2 defeat to Birmingham City at The Hawthorns on Wednesday night, according to Elias Burke.

The Athletic journalist reported via his personal Twitter account on Thursday morning (15 September) that Bruce, 61, is “under genuine pressure” as Albion manager with his side sitting 20th in the Championship table with just one win from nine games.

Bruce took the blame for the defeat to his former club, which was the first time the Baggies have lost to Blues at The Hawthorns in 17 years.

For the first time, Bruce is under genuine pressure as #WBA manager. One W in 9 & sitting 20th won’t cut it for a side who had/have promotion aspirations. The struggle to fix persisting problems, despite time on the training pitch, the biggest concern.https://t.co/WBuwjjpfG1
— Elias (@EliasBurke) September 15, 2022

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Speaking to The Athletic after the game on 14 September, he said: “I’ll take the blame, it’s my fault.

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“I picked them, I prepared them, I got them. We did as much as we could in my opinion but of course, I’m judged by results and one win in nine is not good enough. I’m like everyone else.”

It’s time to go

It’s nothing new for Albion fans to see their club’s manager under pressure.

And more often than not, when a West Brom manager is starting to feel the heat, they crumble and are gone in a matter of weeks.

West Brom have a good opportunity coming up to replace Bruce with the international break starting after they play against Norwich this weekend.

It’ll be a tough game for the Baggies as they’ll be away at Carrow Road against one of the division’s strongest sides. A poor performance and a poor result should really be the end of him.

But should the end for Bruce already be here?

He could earn a stay of execution against Norwich if he gets a point but that would mean the international break is wasted on him staying on charge, only for him to be gone at some point in October.

Based on what we’ve seen so far, we doubt there’ll be any miraculous change over the international break unless Semi Ajayi, Tom Rogic and Daryl Dike get up to full speed and are able to play regularly.

That’s unlikely but even if he did have a full squad available, we have very little faith in Bruce being able to turn this season around.

In other West Brom news, Tony Brown says Bruce was forced into a decision on this Albion player due to angry fans at The Hawthorns.