Hodgson tactical move backfires

West Brom manager Roy Hodgson admitted some responsibility for his side’s poor first half display in their 0-0 draw with Fulham on Saturday.

The veteran manager said he had tinkered with West Brom’s tactics in the first period as he looked to engineer their second win of the season, but the move backfired as his side struggled for cohesion.

The Baggies improved in the second half, but were unable to find a winner.

“I thought both teams defended well in patches, they defended well throughout, we defended well in the second half,” Hodgson said.

“In the first half I don’t think we played at all well and I take some responsibility for that because we tampered with our way of playing and our system, and it didn’t work particularly well.”

“In the second half we went back to a classic 4-4-2 system and I think in the second half we actually dominated the game.”

The draw leaves West Brom second from bottom with just three points from six games, but Hodgson believes the club are months away from having to worry about relegation.

“Lots of teams are relegation candidates and it’s not where you are after seven games, it’s where you are after 38 games,” Hodgson said.

“If we need to start panicking about relegation, we’ll do that some time in the spring, we’re not going to now.”

Fulham manager Martin Jol said he felt his team were the better side in the match and that their position in the league – 17th with four points – did not fairly represent their form.

“The only thing is you need to finish them off. You need to create a bit more. We had three or four possibilities, but if you play that well: I’m not sure what the possession was, but we played it about at the back and we could play it in midfield. I think we looked the better team,” Jol said.

“We can do better in the future. If you play the way we do, with five goals now in a row now, it is a bit disappointing.”

“I think we are in a false position as well. Instead of six points we had two points against Aston Villa. Against Blackburn we were playing like we did today.”