Tony Pulis: Formation not to blame for West Brom's poor form
Tony Pulis says nobody would be criticising his formation had the Baggies not shot themselves in the foot this season with individual errors.
The head coach says his side has been its own worst enemy during the current streak of nine games without a win in all competitions.
Pulis is under increasing pressure from the fan-base, and has been criticised for playing three holding midfielders and leaving Salomon Rondon isolated up front.
But he reckons the team should have enough points on the board to be sitting in the top eight, instead of 15th, where they currently reside.
"We've been our own worst enemies," said Pulis. "We could be sat here with an extra six points easily and nobody would be criticising the three in the middle or the five at the back or the one up front or whatever.
"We have left a lot of points on the pitch. I don’t think the performances have been that bad, no-one has given us a hiding.
"Even at Brighton they scored just before and after half time which killed that game. We’ve shot ourselves in the foot more than anything else."
Pulis still has faith in his methods, and blames the winless run on individual mistakes and lack of concentration near the final whistle.
Albion have let in late goals against Stoke, Watford, Leicester and Southampton this season, but they scored one of their own at Manchester City last weekend and Pulis took heart from that performance against the league leaders.
"Looking back at the goals we have conceded, and how late they have been, it has been concentration or individual errors." he said. "That’s what's cost us. I don’t think it has been anything more than that.
"You look at the Leicester game, we have had opportunities to score more goals, and we haven’t taken them, and then got punished. That’s what happens.
"It sometimes goes for you, sometimes it doesn’t, but you have to make sure the players keep a level head, they keep doing the right things.
"It's a good group of lads, the effort they put in against one of the best teams in Europe on Saturday – especially when City got the third goal they looked rampant – they gave it everything they’d got.
"Our output for the Man City game was the highest this season so there’s no sign of them losing confidence."
