West Brom debrief: Formation change and Ryan Mason's future
Albion's diabolical form away from The Hawthorns continued as a woeful first half did the damage in a 3-2 defeat at Southampton.
Baggies correspondent Lewis Cox looks at some of the latest talking points in the debrief.
Formation change
For just the second time this season boss Ryan Mason started with his side in a back three formation with wing-backs, moving away from the usual 4-2-3-1 shape.
It allowed three centre-backs to start and Samuel Iling-Junior - one of four changes - and Callum Styles were used as the wing-backs. Like Charlton, where he used the formation previously, Southampton use a similar formation. The all-too familiar figure of Tom Fellows wreaked havoc from right wing-back for the Saints.
Mason said of the set-up: "It wasn't to negate them. I think if you watch us play most weeks, in terms of with the ball, the shape is exactly the same.
"The principles are exactly the same. You can't flip to a shape that's something new and play the way we did in the second half, for example. It's more just trying to give them something different, I guess.
"Obviously the opposition played into it as well, in terms of how they set up and their formation, but also, we've not been picking up results away. We wanted to try something different.
