Tony Pulis' honesty 'refreshing' says West Brom's Gerry Francis
Wednesday 12 August 2015 12:15, UK
Gerry Francis believes it was refreshing for Tony Pulis to admit his tactics did not work following West Brom’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City at the Hawthorns on Monday.
Pulis opted to play with two strikers in Rickie Lambert and Saidho Berahino against City - and immediately admitted following the game that he had got it wrong.
Speaking on Sky Sports Now, Francis - West Brom’s first team coach - explained how he feels it made a change for a manager to admit he had got his tactics wrong.
"I think to start with, managers spend all their lives making decisions and you do certain things to see if you can get an edge.
Tony had this feeling he could play two strikers and cause City some problems but it didn’t work out.
"Tony had this feeling he could play two strikers and cause City some problems but it didn’t work out. I think it was refreshing he admitted after the game it didn’t work out," he said.
"I think we went back in the second-half and we did pretty well and were unfortunate not to get back into the game. There are games where you get away with two up front.
"Each game is different and you look at each game in a different way. With Chelsea coming up we need to look at getting points against Watford."
Francis highlighted how he believes it is important for Premier League clubs to have several strikers in their squad and revealed he has been impressed with Baggies' record signing Salomon Rondon who signed from Zenit St Petersburg on Monday.
He said: "Every club has to have three or four strikers as you need that throughout the season. That’s what we’ve done,” said Francis.
"He’s been in training with us and he looks good. He’s a nice size and has a good goal scoring record. A good box player and good in the air and he is something we needed."
Francis went on to reveal the Baggies are looking to strengthen before the transfer window closes to help the club achieve their goals for the season of finishing as high up the table as possible and having a good cup run.
