Jonathan Greening: West Brom fans expect to see style and substance

But the retired midfielder – speaking exclusively to Ladbrokes – believes their position of third in the table shows head coach Valerien Ismael is getting a lot of things right.

Despite being in a good position in the Championship, the Baggies have been involved in a number of games this season where they have struggled to create chances and break their opponents down.

And it has led to them being booed by some fans – most notably in the games against Derby, Preston, QPR and Middlesbrough.

“I understand the frustration a little bit when it comes to the style of play,” said Greening, who enjoyed six successful years with Albion between 2004 and 2010.

“West Brom fans – certainly in this division – are used to an attacking and exciting brand of football.

“But they’ve been very direct at times.

“I was watching a game a few weeks back and Darnell Furlong was taking two minutes to get a towel and dry the ball for a throw-in, and I’m not going to lie, it was frustrating the life out of me.

“The West Brom fans like attacking football – good attacking football at a good speed.

“They like players who control the game and create lots of chances.

“At the moment, we look strong defensively, but I think we can probably get the ball on the floor a bit more.

“Listen, at the end of the day, they’re third in the league, so I don’t think we can be too critical of the manager, because he’s clearly doing something right.”

After flying out the blocks at the start of the 2021/22 campaign, Albion have since come up against a lot of teams who have opted to sit deep and defend in a low block.

And Greening said that happened a lot to the successful Baggies sides he played in.

“It happens a lot in the Championship when you’re at a club like West Brom,” he continued.

“I experienced it in my time with the club, teams come to The Hawthorns and just get behind the ball – they let us have possession and asked us to break them down.

“With our team, we were very patient, we picked our times, we switched play a lot and we had clever players who’d find little pockets of space.

“Zoltan (Gera) would often come in from the wing into a more central position and we’d fizz balls through the line into him.

“It was the same with Jason Koumas – he was very clever, he didn’t just stay out wide, he found space in behind the front two.

“When we did that, we attacked at pace and we had clever strikers like Kevin Phillips, Ishmael Miller and Roman Bednar. They were all lethal for us.

“Koumas, Brunty (Chris Brunt), Mozza (James Morrison), Zoltan, (Aurio) Teixeira, we had all of these attacking options and all of them used to drive at defenders.

“Robert Koren would always like to get forward and score goals as well.

“Teams always used to set up to try and frustrate us, it’s always going to happen when you’re West Brom in this division.”