Eric Ramsay panics with call made for dire West Brom draw vs Stoke City, he deserves no praise
It was yet another highly disappointing day at the office for West Brom on Saturday.
West Brom drew 0-0 with Stoke City, pushing Albion deeper into relegation trouble.
The atmosphere at The Hawthorns was described as “depressing” by the Sky Sports reporter working the game, as both sets of supporters are feeling down in the dumps about their team’s at the minute.
As it happened, the game of football would act as a visual metaphor for those feelings, as it was a fairly uneventful scoreless draw.
Eric Ramsay made six changes for Stoke City clash
With no league win in six games for West Brom ahead of Saturday’s game, Ramsay decided to overhaul his starting XI from the 3-0 defeat away at Portsmouth last time out.
In came Alfie Gilchrist, Callum Styles, Alex Mowatt, Jed Wallace, Daryl Dike and debutant Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba respectively.
They replaced Danny Imray, Charlie Taylor, Ousmane Diakite, Mikey Johnston, Samuel Iling-Junior – who has since left Albion – and Aune Heggebo respectively.
He also moved away from a three at the back too in favour of a four, with Ramsay once again showing his inability to so far find a formation and system to stick by.
Ultimately, the changes didn’t have the desired effect, as the same old issues continued to plague his side, with very little attacking invention to Albion’s play.
Ramsay’s Stoke selections showed panic and inexperience
Ramsay is only 33-years old, and with just under two years at MLS side Minnesota United his only senior and full-time managerial experience on his CV, his personnel decisions against Stoke showed that.
Johnston has been West Brom’s best and most creative attacking player so far this season, with two goals and nine assists in 29 games coming into Saturday.
West Brom need him on the pitch right now, and whilst Ramsay wouldn’t be wrong to try and implement a ‘no player is undroppable’ philosophy, they need as many of their best players out there.
Meanwhile, the decision to once again change formation is not allowing him to develop a clear tactical philosophy and approach either, and doesn’t come across as him being tactically flexible and clever.
That picture is only painted of a head coach if the weekly formation changes are getting results, instead, this just comes across as a head coach who doesn’t quite know what system or players to deploy week-to-week.