James Morrison addresses West Brom man management and 'emotional common sense' point

James Morrison has won praise for his man management of players - but the Albion boss reckons it is all about being a good bloke.

Former Hawthorns team-mate Paul Robinson told the Express & Star’s Baggies Broadcast podcast this week that the head coach is excelling in the way he manages individuals in the dressing room.

That was underlined by striker Barney Stewart this week, who spoke highly of how Morrison has dealt with him amid limited minutes since moving from Falkirk in the summer.

Morrison, whose troops tackle rock-bottom Preston at Deepdale in the Championship on Saturday, says dealing with every player differently was something he picked up from the experienced bosses he played under, among them Tony Pulis - who this week claimed Morrison is making the job look ‘easy’.

Morrison said of man management: “It’s in the job title.

“Coming into work it’s how can I get the best out of them? I ask the players to come in every day and try to be better. It’s no different to me.

“It’s challenging them every day, in different ways. It might be physically, mentally. We were in a period of back-to-back defeats, it wasn’t a nice feeling, I had to find a way and search for something and luckily we did.”

The Albion boss added: “I go back to when I was playing. You take bits from different managers. But I tend to not change from who I am and how I treat people.

“I know every player is different. I think I’ve got a good gauge of how my players respond to treatment. Some are different. My coaching team have got a good balance.

“It’s important to spend time together, get to know each other, recognising what new players coming in need. I’ve got to keep challenging them because it’s a long season.”

While Albion are in good form, one situation that left the head coach kicking himself was the hamstring injury for Toby Collyer last weekend.

The midfielder will miss up to six weeks with the muscle blow after Morrison ignored advice to hand the 22-year-old a breather after a busy week.

A reflective Morrison admitted he is still learning on the job after being carried away by Collyer’s form. He added how sometimes, the best decision is a “common sense” one.

“It’s still the same - (feelings) of frustration, really, for Toby,” Morrison said.

“I know how hard he’s worked. I saw a player there who’s progressing nicely and doing what I know he could. He was excellent for the 40 minutes he played.

“I know how desperate he is to prove to people what a good player he is. But it’s not as bad as we thought.

“It’s a joint-effort (with staff), we work together closely. I think I just got a bit excited to see how well he was doing and what the Blackburn game needed. I thought I could get an hour out of him.

“I had conversations with the medical team, but thinking about it I didn’t use my common sense. He’d had back-to-back games for the first time in a while.

“I probably let the emotions (take over), thinking about winning and the bigger picture. We’d had conversations and he felt really good but I didn’t use my common sense and it’s something I’ll learn from. I think once he gets 10 or 15 games under his belt it’ll be a bit different.”