‘Take it personally’ – Tony Mowbray slams two West Brom players after Blackburn defeat.
Tony Mowbray was visibly upset with two of his players following West Bromwich Albion’s 0-2 defeat over Blackburn Rovers.
West Brom’s defeat against Blackburn at The Hawthorns on Wednesday night was preventable, and the players should have known better, said head coach Tony Mowbray after the game.
Mowbray, deflated as he entered the press room, underlined his unhappiness with the lack of boldness in attack, but he believed the more major let-down was the type of the goals allowed, particularly the first.Makhtar Gueye scored a fantastic volley to give Blackburn a 1-0 lead. However, Dominic Hyam was given too much freedom to assist the goal by heading a deep corner into the danger area.
Mowbray blamed his two central defenders, Torbjorn Heggem and Mason Holgate, saying they could have done a better job clearing the ball. “I’m telling the defenders that it’s going to sting like hell if they concede a goal. It’s such an easy goal; when a corner comes in, a huge boy at the back heads it across and the centre-forward slams it in. Mowbray yelled, “It’s too easy and can’t happen.”
“I spent my entire career trying to make first contact on set plays, and you have to make first contact. You don’t have to bullet header everything to the halfway line; just don’t give them a free header that travels back over the six-yard box for the lad to volley in.
“I know what motivates me and makes me want to win every game; you must take it personally. That was the essence of football when I was a player. That first goal would not have happened if I had been playing. I shouldn’t talk about 30 years ago, but you must take it personally.
“If Bartley had played today, I doubt they would have scored the opening goal. It does not happen to them (Blackburn); they receive touches, head it out, and throw their bodies in the way. Why don’t we do that? “I need to get to the bottom of that and peel back the layers,” Mowbray said.
Inconsistency is harming West Brom
The good news is that Albion have the potential to bounce back away against Millwall this weekend. Inconsistency has been a concern all season, with so many draws, hot-and-cold spells, and shock defeats, so a win at The Den would help ease the nerves.
Mowbray understands that it won’t happen overnight, but he’s pushing for improved consistency and mindset from his players to guarantee Albion beat their opponents to a play-off berth at the end of the season. “We haven’t won back-to-back games since September,” Mowbray told BirminghamWorld.
“It appears that when the wheels stop rotating in May, you’ll need to be on a roll to finish in the top six. When I was at Sunderland, we had to rely on other people’s outcomes. If you don’t win games, you won’t get anywhere.
“You need to reach to 70 points, maybe more. It doesn’t matter which games you win; we need to find a method to win half of the 14 games. That’s where we are, and we must accept it. We strive to find consistency, people who can do the job, and I believe we have a decent group,” Mowbray said.
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