Steve Bruce urges West Brom players to ‘help’ David Button after Swansea disappointment
David Button has endured a torrid start to the season with West Brom, but Steve Bruce believes there is more his defenders can do to help.
West Brom extended their winless run on Saturday with a 3-2 defeat to Swansea City, which saw the visitors score two late goals to steal the points.
Button struggled to have any impact on the game, with the Swans scoring three from just four shots on target.
The 33-year-old shot-stopped has come under fire for his performances this season, but Bruce wants to see his other players offering more help to their goalkeeper.
“He’s frustrated because at the end of the day goalkeepers don’t want goals to go in, they pride themselves on keeping a clean sheet,” the Albion boss told Express & Star.
“We have to help him more, he hasn’t helped himself today (Saturday), of course, but we haven’t helped him enough.
“If we have to keep scoring two or three – which we seem to do by the way – then we’re not going to win football matches.”
Out of form
Button is far from the only West Brom player struggling for form. His shot-stopping has been poor this season and he looks extremely low on confidence after shipping 17 goals in 11 games.
He’s certainly not blameless in West Brom’s poor start to the season, and fingers need to be pointed at his form, but it’s also true that he has been exposed by a weak and fragile defence.
The organisation in defence has been awful and too many mistakes have been made by the back four. There’s nothing Button can do about that, but conceding three from four shots on Saturday makes him equally at fault.
Perhaps it’s time for Bruce to give Button a rest, but the Baggies hardly provide much competition between the sticks, with Alex Palmer the next choice goalkeeper at the club.
Bruce clearly doesn’t trust Palmer with first-team minutes, and therefore has tried to instil some confidence in Button through his comments.
But instead of simply asking his defence to do more, Bruce needs to show he can organise this defence and get them playing as a unit.
Preston – who have scored just three goals this season – are up next. If the Baggies can’t keep things tight there then there’s no hope at all for Bruce.
In other West Brom news, Baggies attackers were slammed by Sam Parkin after the Swansea defeat.