Tony Pulis pleased with West Brom fight despite Carabao Cup exit

The Baggies were knocked out in the third round after losing 2-1 to Pep Guardiola's team at The Hawthorns, but Claudio Yacob equalised in the 72nd minute to cancel out Leroy Sane's opener, before the German added a second five minutes later.

Although Pulis was disappointed with the result, he was pleased with the reaction his team showed after a half-time grilling in the dressing room.

"The problem was we were winning the ball but we kept giving it back to them," said Pulis. "Some players were so culpable of being poor in possession, you can't do that against the big teams.

"We pulled them at half-time and said 'you can work as hard as you want but if you keep giving the ball back, it's for nothing'.

"Thats what we did second half, we won the ball, got a pass off and the pitch opened up. I thought we played really well second half and because of the chances we created, I'm disappointed for them."

Two of those chances fell to Hal Robson-Kanu, who was given his first start of the season up front alongside Jay Rodriguez.

The first one came when the score was 1-1 but the Wales international shot wide from eight yards out, and the second one came in injury time when the striker hit the post after finding himself clean through on goal.

"Every centre forward will miss chances, even the best ones," said Pulis. "I'm not goign to be critical, he's had a couple of great chances that on another day he'll put away.

"The great thing is we were creating chances against one of the top teams in Europe, not just England, but Europe."

Pulis tried a new formation last night with Allan Nyom and Kieran Gibbs as wing-backs, but he explained it was not a back five.

"It was more of a swivelling four," said the Baggies boss. "When Matty came on we wanted to push that right hand side player up a bit more.

"We thought we would have to leave three against three, and we could not have done it if we played a back four.

"If you play a swivelling four, where the right sided player is pulling out, you get that three against three but if you're compact against them it can work.

"Against the best teams, sometimes you have to do something different, we tried that today. It wasn't good enough in the first half, but it was good in the second half."

Gareth McAuley made his first start of the season in the back line but was given a torrid time by Gabriel Jesus.

"I spoke to Gareth beforehand and asked whether he wanted to play in this game or full game against Walsall, and he said this game," explained Pulis.

"I'm not convinced that was the right decision to play against those players. The lad up front, Jesus, I mean, Jesus!"