Tony Pulis usually waits until he reaches the forty-point mark to start losing games in long streaks - it's a handy way of lowering expectation ahead of the following season - but now he is facing a crisis in the face just when it matters.
West Brom have not won a game since August, a League Cup tie against Accrington Stanley, and have not won in the league since the opening day. Most worrying for Baggies fans is the quality of opposition faced in that time: while they've lost to Arsenal and Man City, they have also failed to beat Stoke, Brighton, West Ham, Watford, Leicester, and Southampton. Today, they hit a nadir: losing 1-0 away to Huddersfield, leaving them just two points clear of the drop.
To make today's result worse: Huddersfield played with ten men for more than thirty minutes. Ultimately, Pulis was made to pay for a bafflingly negative approach today: he played five defenders and three defensive midfielders away to the side with the lowest wage bill in the division.
West Brom fans at the ground were unimpressed, serenading Pulis throughout with chants like "Tony Pulis, your football is shit" and "Tony Pulis, get out of our club".
Pulis' style of football is largely miserable and difficult to watch, and while this can be mitigated against and dressed in the rags of pragmatism when results are going his way, when they aren't, it is all quite futile. Here's a remarkable stat from Daniel Storey of Football365:
West Brom have played 54 away Premier League games under Tony Pulis.
They scored more than one goal in NINE of those.— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) November 4, 2017
A parting of the ways seems to be on the horizon.
Now it's: 'Tony Pulis, your football is shit.'
— Mike Keegan (@MikeKeegan_DM) November 4, 2017
Tony Pulis has put out the most negative team in premier league history with only 2 attacking players and 9 defensive minded players @WBA
— Sted (@sted1990) November 4, 2017
Heard recently that Tony Pulis could be in trouble over the international break if West Brom did not improve... Doesn't sound good today!
— Dean Jones (@DeanJonesSoccer) November 4, 2017
Alan Irivne’s 22 games at #wba
W5 D6 L11; 22.7 win percentage.
Tony Pulis’s last 22 wba games.
W3 D4 L15; 13.6 win percentage
Time to go.— Alex Newton (@AlexRobNewton) November 4, 2017
