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Blog: Pepe Mel can bring 'tika-taka' to West Brom

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West Brom certainly took their time in appointing a new successor to Steve Clarke and Albion blogger Warren Stephens looks ahead to Pepe Mel's reign at The Hawthorns.

Although it would seem from the outside that Mel was always a prominent contender, the length of time the appointment took would imply that the process was not as seamless as it might have been intended.

Fortunately, Keith Downing and Dean Kiely provided some much-needed stability during a period where anything less may have multiplied the urgency and complexity of Jeremy Peace's decision.

I can't pretend to offer a great deal of insight into Pepe Mel's background other than the very few times I've seen Betis on TV and the sum-total of numerous Google searches, however my new Spanish housemate reliably informs me that he's a man of great pedigree who preaches open, expansive and attacking football. He even, un-prompted, made reference to 'tika-taka' football, it certainly sounds like it's going to be exciting!

I'm sure all Albion supporters, myself included, will be fully behind the new man. I'm fairly sure that most of us wouldn't have chosen many of our last five or six managers, yet the Board have rarely made a bad decision amongst them and they've arguably earned our trust to prolong that success rate.

Mel certainly has a job on his hands if Saturday's pathetic defeat at Southampton was anything to go by. I'd normally consider myself a patient and supportive Albion supporter, but I must admit I found the passive and lifeless nature of our display to be testing in the extreme.

For me, too many players seemed to be going through the motions, there was little in the way of pressing the ball when we lost possession - even in our own half, where we normally see it - or urgency when we did have it. The watching Mel should certainly have been left with no illusions of the challenge he faces.

Keith Downing opted to start with Nicolas Anelka and Shane Long as a front pairing. I may be wrong with this, but the last time I can recall those two operating together was on the opening day of the season, also against Southampton. From memory, such was the opposition's dominance, partly due to the ineffectiveness of the front two, Shane Long was forced into a wide role before half-time arrived. I must admit, therefore, that I found it peculiar that they should be reunited for the return fixture.

That said, every week thousands of supporters try and second guess their team's starting line-up, when in truth, none of us will know or understand a reason for a certain player's selection, so I don't particularly begrudge any Coach's decision in that respect. What I did find mystifying, is why it took almost 80 minutes to amend our attacking personnel, when the afternoon was proving so painstakingly fruitless for both Anelka and Long, I don't think we'd even threatened a shot up to then.

There's a school of thought that perhaps suggests Matej Vydra might struggle to operate as a front man if he's receiving a certain type of ball with his back to goal, but his directness, along with Saido Berahino - who, questionable attitude in training or not, surely has to warrant more starts than he's getting - causes opposition teams all sorts of problems. I'm sure all of our strikers will start Senor Mel's reign with a clean slate, it'll be interesting to see who starts against Everton.

One of my reservations about the thought-process behind bringing in a new Head Coach - and this isn't exclusive to Mel, indeed I'd harbour the same concerns were it Jose Mourinho or Sir Alex Ferguson in the hot-seat - is that the personnel isn't going to necessarily change very quickly.

Shane Long's touch isn't suddenly going to re-appear, Nicolas Anelka will continue to head back into the traffic even when he's supposed to be our most advanced player, Liam Ridgewell isn't suddenly going to keep a pacey, quick-footed winger in his back pocket and Jonas Olsson's distribution is not suddenly going to replicate Rio Ferdinand's.

The striking issue is a huge one for me, the nine or ten players behind the striker can be playing virtually as they did last season or the season before, but if we can't turn a team around as we could with Romelu Lukaku or Peter Odemwingie, then we can arguably play all day long without doing any damage, as we have been doing.

Similarly our slow back four will remain excruciatingly susceptible to a counter-attack the second we press higher up the pitch, as Norwich, Swansea and Hull amongst others found out to their benefit.

So it's a big job for Pepe Mel, how does he change any of the above? I'm not sure he can until the summer, given that we're unlikely to see much movement in the January transfer window. If we're all honest, we're in a scrap and Pepe needs time, patience and backing.

Our supporters on Saturday were as quiet as I can ever remember at an away match, in stark contrast to the carnival atmosphere at St Mary's last season, which in itself is indicative of the journey we've been on since. We can only hope 2014 yields many more points than 2013 did!

Pepe might be the man to bring those happy faces back, I really hope so and his style of football certainly promises that, but we need to get over that safety line first.

Go on Pep, we're right behind you! Vamos you Baggies!!