Eric Ramsay must revert to 4-4-2 for West Brom vs Charlton Athletic
The time has come for Eric Ramsay to throw West Brom tactical caution to the wind.
West Brom are in a dire situation in the Championship, and Ramsay is going to have to show his coaching nous if he is to guide Albion to safety this season.
Coventry ran out 2-0 winners in Saturday’s Midlands derby at The Hawthorns, leaving Ramsay without a win from his first eight games in charge as Baggies boss.
As such, Albion are now sitting 21st in the table, just one point above Leicester in 22nd, and must now take three points in a massive relegation six-pointer against Charlton on Tuesday night.
Eric Ramsay must revert back to two in attack vs Charlton
Scoring goals is proving to be a major issue for West Brom under Ramsay, with just three scored from his seven Championship games in charge.
Indeed, Albion haven’t found the net in any of their last four league games, and the Baggies boss has deployed his side in three different formations in that time period.
4-2-3-1 was how Ramsay set his team up against Coventry, 4-4-2 was given the nod against Birmingham and Stoke, whilst 3-4-2-1 was the direction he went in for Portsmouth respectively.
Ramsay also dabbled with his preferred 5-4-1 for his first three games in charge, but that accommodated defeats to Middlesbrough and Norwich as well as a draw with Derby respectively.
All this chopping and changing can’t be doing the West Brom players much good, and so Ramsay must now settle on a formation and stick by it, and that should be 4-4-2.
Out of the three league points Ramsay has picked up with Albion so far, two of those came from the Birmingham and Stoke games where 4-4-2 was the starting formation chosen.
That means that the Baggies are undefeated under Ramsay using this formation, and it goes without saying but finding a tactic that can consistently produce points at this stage would be like striking gold.
Charlton are there to be beat for West Brom
Getting as many attacking players on the pitch is vital for West Brom now, as goals will get them out of their current relegation predicament.
If they can do that, then Charlton will be there for the taking on Tuesday night, as Nathan Jones’ side have a poor away record in the Championship this season.
The Addicks have won just three of their 17 games on the road this term, posting a goal difference of -10 with just 15 of their 40 total points coming from away matches.
Charlton have also failed to score more than a single goal in any of their last four league games, albeit they have only lost once in that time period, so Albion really need to get at the Addicks on Tuesday.
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