Albion Outlook: West Brom fans discuss formation and form

Alan Foster, 61, Smethwick

After watching Monday night’s performance against Arsenal I was quite optimistic about the squad, the new additions and the style of play.

I have watched both the Man City game and Monday’s game and the formation with the 3-5-2 set up looks like it could suit the players we have in the squad

The biggest challenge for the manager in my mind is to find a system that incorporates our best players.

That means including the three centre halves Jonny Evans, Ahmed Hegazi and Craig Dawson at the back as well as Grzegorz Krychowiak, Gareth Barry and Jake Livermore in midfield.

This creates quite a problem with all six players being defensively biased in their style of play, but with a few alterations to Monday’s personnel I think we may answer the puzzle, away from home at least.

For me Matty Phillips has to come in at right wing-back in place of Allan Nyom and I would like to see Salomon Rondon have the chance to play alongside someone up front - either Jay Rodriguez or Nacer Chadli.

Rondon has worked tirelessly on his own up front for two seasons and deserves a chance in this system.

Sarah Rudge, 24, Wolverhampton

With a disappointing run of results in September finally over, here’s hoping for a more promising October starting with the visit of Watford on Saturday.

It’s difficult to understand why we’ve been winless during the month despite tough matches against Man City in the cup and more recently Arsenal.

A trip to Brighton and a home game against West Ham were inviting fixtures for which we failed to perform to anywhere near the standard expected in either.

For the game at the Emirates a new ‘wing back’ system was deployed by Tony Pulis along with a midfield trio of Livermore, Barry and Krychowiak.

Whilst I can understand why we needed to increase the number of defensive bodies against a top team like Arsenal, I’m sure a lot of the fans are hoping this isn’t a regular selection choice.

Personally I think Barry and Livermore are too similar to play together and a much more preferable option would be to play James Morrison who is able to drive forward and help support the strikers.

With the Hornets our next opposition we should be looking to increase our attacking options so that we can get back to winning ways.

Paul Chappell, 35, Shifnal

There is nowhere else to start other than the referee’s performance at Arsenal.

An excellent first half was undermined by the ref’s inability to spot blatant cheating and stonewall penalties. When you go away to a top eight team you need that little bit of luck and I only hope that some of the ridiculously poor decisions we received last night means we’ve got some soft decisions coming our way soon.

That being said, a spirited first half against Arsenal followed an excellent second half against City and shows that maybe, just maybe, our summer signings are starting to click.

Krychowiak was superb and looks like an absolute bargain. Worryingly, we still don’t look like scoring and up front is definitely somewhere that needs improving.

Unfortunately, and despite their best efforts, Hal Robson-Kanu and Salomon Rondon simply won’t ever score enough goals in this league in my opinion.

Tom Goffe, 30, Telford

As much as the results against Man City and Arsenal were disappointing, I feel there were definitely positives to take from both performances.

In those two halves we must of created eight great opportunities to score against two of the divisions best teams.

Yes we only put one away, but it was encouraging to see considering how poor we have been in the opposition’s half for some considerable time now.

I squirmed a bit when I saw Pulis had switched to a 5-3-2 formation, but after the shadow-chasing first 45 minutes against City, its looked pretty effective. Personally I think it’s simply down to the fact that that we have had two strikers on the pitch.

Rodriguez and Robson-Kanu should have come out of those games with at least a couple of goals each, and they look better when they have another forward player to link up with and play off.

It’s no surprise that the best we’ve attacked under Pulis is when Nacer Chadli was deployed as a no.10.

I just hope that he sticks with two up front and don’t revert to one, because if we replicate how we played in those two halves, with Watford, Leicester and Southampton coming up we might manage to put some points on the board and score a few goals in the process.

Pat Frost, 52, Telford

It’s not the easiest of places to get to on a Monday night, but that wasn’t going to stop me from going to Arsenal.

It was a two-hour drive to North London. I parked at Cockfosters tube station, got on the tube and was almost there.

Thinking about Cockfosters brings me to referee Bobby Madley. ‘We were robbed’, a fellow Albion fan told two police officers as he walked out of the ground.

It wasn’t Madley’s finest hour. I’m sure it would have been a different result if he had done his job correctly. Our best forty-five minutes of the season, and we still came away with no points.

Suddenly, Watford on Saturday is a big game for the team, and an even bigger one for TP. An okay start to the season could soon turn into a poor one.

There is a possibility we could be one point above the relegation places going into international break. Although with a win, we could be in the top six.

High praise was heaped onto Gareth Barry after breaking the Premier League appearance record, and rightly so. I

t’s a fantastic achievement by a great player, and by all accounts, a top bloke. We are very lucky to have him. I just wish we could have signed him a couple of seasons sooner.