"A front-footed approach could catch Middlesborough off guard"

Birmingham Mail’s West Bromwich Albion expert believes a change in approach could be key to the Baggies picking up a positive result against Middlesborough tomorrow evening.

Steve Bruce's men travel to North Yorkshire in desperate need of victory, having won 1 of their last 11 games and failing to score in their last 5.

Joe Chapman did hint Bruce could make changes from the defeat at Luton but admitted his options are limited.

He said: "The problem for me is he's (Bruce) very limited on what he can do, it was probably the case of changing things a little bit too quickly after Ismael left and the players are still quite used to playing in a back three so I imagine he'll stick with a back three for tomorrow.

"He does need to change it up more, I think you could catch Middlesborough off guard if you go on the front foot against them and maybe play someone like Callum Robinson as a number 10 rather than Adam Reach.

"I do think we'll see changes because I think it's necessary and there can't be any repeats of what we saw against Luton, some of the players need to realise their places in the starting XI aren't as fixed as maybe they think so I'm hoping the 2 or 3 changes I think he'll make will have the desired effect."

Since Steve Bruce has arrived at the club there's been little opportunity for the likes of Dara O'Shea and Taylor Gardner-Hickman whilst Rayhaan Tulloch has been back in the squad but yet to get any minutes himself.

When asked if any of those could start tomorrow Chapman said:

"In terms of personnel Bruce is pretty restricted, but we could see the likes of Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Dara O'Shea getting an opportunity, but with someone like Rayhaan Tulloch, he's not kicked a Championship football bar a couple of minutes off the bench at Blackburn all season so he's in a different camp in terms of being a genuine option as a starter.

"I don't think the pool of players he has is very deep, Daryl Dike won't be available until around April, Jake Livermore is suspended for the next couple of games, Matt Phillips is another player who I think would have got some minutes around now.

"Bruce hasn't got a lot of wriggle room, certainly in midfield so it is a problem for him."

Albion have been on a horrendous run of form, which has seen them lose 7 out of their last 10 matches and score only 2 first half goals in 19 league games.

Chapman added: "I'm really concerned by the capacity of this squad to battle back and show any desire and fight when they go behind, their record in recent weeks when they've fallen behind in games is absolutely abysmal, they don't show any signs of getting back into games.

"We've seen Millwall, Preston, Derby, Sheffield United and Luton in recent weeks where when they got themselves in front, none of them looked under threat and that's the real concern. No goals in 5 games is just not good enough at this or any level and by now you'd have thought over the course of those 5 matches they must surely have scored 1 goal and to be fair to Luton they tried their best to gift Albion the lead by giving Karlan Grant and Andy Carroll a couple of opportunities but they just don't seem to have the ability, they look so bereft of any confidence and at this moment in time the season is spiraling away, Middlesborough is an enormous game and we need to see a response from what we saw on Saturday."