Steve Bruce not to blame for West Brom’s Championship collapse – Darren Carter
Former West Brom player Darren Carter does not believe Steve Bruce is to blame for the club’s soul-destroying start to the Championship season – which saw the Englishman sacked just 13 games into the season.
The 61-year-old was sacked in October after a run of just one win in 13 games which had left the Baggies lamenting in the Championship relegation zone.
Life at The Hawthornes since the Englishman’s sacking has improved dramatically, with the side picking up three wins – and three clean sheets – in a row before they parted ways for the Qatar World Cup.
Speaking on the Baggies Broadcast, Carter – who was given his senior debut by Bruce at Birmingham City – said the blame should not fall solely at the manager’s door.
He said: “I know there are a lot of comments out there about where he is at now, but he has experience of getting out of the Championship.
“And I’m a big believer of things don’t just happen for one reason at a football club.
“We know at Albion for years something hasn’t been right and it shouldn’t all be laid on Steve, that is for sure.
“He would have got it right eventually given some time, but that is football and you don’t get it as a manager.”
Unsure
Although West Brom have their failings as a club, and the board can be partly blamed for years of poor transfer decisions, Bruce must take the sole blame for the cataclysmic fall down the Championship table.
One win in 13 games just isn’t good enough to keep you in a job nowadays in the brutal managerial merry-go-round that the Championship is.
It wasn’t just that the form was poor, but the performances were even worse – with The Baggies playing an ineffective defensive tactical set-up which still failed to keep goals out.
The stark u-turn that has taken place under Corberan shows that the West Midlands club do possess a talented squad of players and one capable of competing in the top half of the league.
Although the club still sit just one place outside the relegation zone, they should look towards Steve Cooper’s 2021/22 Nottingham Forest side for inspiration of what is possible in the extremely competitive Championship table.
In other West Brom news, the USA badly miss Daryl Dike as they struggle for goals in Qatar.