Steve Bruce reflects on ‘unlucky’ Swansea loss and pinpoints exactly where West Brom need to improve
West Brom suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Swansea City on Saturday, leaving Steve Bruce with just one win in 11 matches.
The Baggies will remain 21st in the Championship after suffering a third defeat of the season at home to the Welsh side.
Matthew Sorinola opened the scoring for the Swans after just six minutes, and while Jake Livermore and Grady Dianganga gave West Brom a brief lead, two late goals from Oliver Ntcham and Michael Obafemi sealed the defeat.
Following the full-time whistle, Bruce was particularly disappointed in his team’s start to the game and insists they must start matches better if they are to turn things around this season.
Speaking to West Brom’s official website, Bruce said: “I’m so frustrated and disappointed.
“We haven’t started the game again, which is proving to be a real problem for us this season.
“I think it’s about the seventh or eighth time we’ve been a goal down in the early stages of a match this season.
“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb by going a goal down and by not doing any of the basics well enough in the early stages.
“What we can’t argue about though is the fact we’ve won one game in 11. We can’t fluff anything up. We were probably unlucky again, but it’s all about winning a football match and we haven’t done that.”
Out of time
Things clearly aren’t working under Bruce at the Hawthorns. The terrible start to the season isn’t solely down to him, but his tactical decisions and team selection haven’t been good enough.
He’s slowly but surely losing the dressing room, and turning things around at West Brom looks more and more impossible as the weeks tick on.
Playing Swansea at home was a huge chance to silence the critics and finally add a vital three points, but the same issues persisted.
A fragile defence, lack of organisation and a poor first half are themes that have been emerging all season. Bruce clearly can’t address them, and it’s looking like he has to go if the team are going to improve.
Preston, Luton and Reading make up West Brom’s next three, and under Bruce it seems unlikely that many points will come from those games.
The club afforded Bruce the international break to try and turn things around, but the Swansea performance showed that not much has changed over the last few weeks.
If the club are eager for real change, it has to start with Bruce leaving.
In other West Brom news, Chris Lepkowski slams Steve Bruce’s tactics as West Brom fall to defeat v Swansea