Despite the fact that Eric Ramsay is still in his first season as West Bromwich Albion’s manager, the sense of anxiety at The Hawthorns has grown rather than diminished.

Ramsay’s first two results, with eight goals conceded, two defeats, and a crushing home loss, have been anything from a reset moment for a club looking for stability.

While any new manager deserves time to implement ideas, the Baggies’ latest setback has undoubtedly increased criticism – not only of Ramsay himself, but also of the larger systems that created the squad he has inherited.

Ramsay entered with a reputation for organisation, adaptability, and tactical clarity, which was supported by considerable coaching education and recent international head-coaching experience.

From the club’s perspective, he was viewed as a long-term hire: a coach with a clear vision capable of restoring coherence after a time of churn in the dugout and fragility on the field.

However, sport rarely allows managers the luxury of patience when results and performances deteriorate dramatically, and the Championship, which is merciless at best, leaves little opportunity for bedding-in periods amid relegation pressure.

What has made Albion’s early struggles more concerning is the familiarity of the issues at hand. Defensive instability, individual blunders, a lack of coordination, and a recurring lack of control have plagued the club across numerous management tenures.

The magnitude of the recent defeat has renewed debate about where true accountability lays.

Is this simply a squad lacking confidence, formed by months of turmoil, and unprepared to handle fresh demands on short notice? Or do the early signals indicate a mismatch between Ramsay’s desired tactical framework and a squad established without adequate balance or foresight?

Increasingly, attention is being turned back to recruitment decisions made well before Ramsay’s arrival, and whether the foundations established in the summer have left Albion vulnerable regardless of who fills the technical position.

Early pressure builds on Eric Ramsay as West Brom’s typical difficulties return.

In an interview with Football League World, in-house Baggies fan pundit Callum Burgess was candid about Ramsay’s time so far.

“I think there’s questions over Ramsey in his start to life as Albion manager, as well as the board and Andrew Nestor in their decision to appoint Ramsey,” Burgess told Football Weekly.

“The squad was so inadequately assembled in the summer following the departures of Darnell Furlong and Tom Ferows.

“They looked at George Campbell, who is a natural centre-back, and Alfie Gilchrist, who is struggling to get a minute on the pitch right now.

“And if you look at Tom Fellows’ successor, Samuel Illing-Junior, we can see that all along his best position was a left wing back, because, to be honest, I’ve criticized Illing-Junior, but he’s the only player who hasn’t looked incompetent in the previous few games.

“When you then appoint a manager who is clearly suited to playing the three-at-back system with wingbacks on the right-hand side, the challenges that the board created in the summer with the absence of replacements for Fellows and Furlong are accentuated even more now.

“Getting back to Ramsay, he was described to us as malleable and versatile. I believe that if he does not overhaul the system rapidly, it will be a series of disasters.

“This 5-0 defeat has to be a very big wake up call for all involved from the board down to the manager then down to players.”

Deeper structural difficulties threaten to undercut Eric Ramsay’s initial work at West Brom.

The criticism made is striking not for its impatience, but for how it places Ramsay inside a larger chain of responsibility.

Rather than blaming the Baggies’ troubles on a single administrative error, it emphasizes the cumulative impact of recruitment decisions, squad deficiencies, and the ramifications of hiring a coach whose strengths may unintentionally accentuate existing flaws.

The club describes Ramsay as adaptive and flexible, skills that will be tested sooner than expected. The Championship rarely waits for theory to catch up with reality, and systems that rely heavily on specialty roles can swiftly unravel if the squad is not designed to support them.

Persisting with a strategy that exposes known flaws risks transforming short-term turbulence into long-term damage, both to results and to trust in the appointment itself.

However, framing the current situation solely as a Ramsay referendum would be excessively reductive. Albion’s recent past serves as a cautionary tale: successive managers have arrived with different ideas, only to be derailed by the same recurring problems.

The risk, once again, is that a coach becomes the visible victim of deeper strategic flaws, while the fundamental issues remain unsolved.

Ramsay’s media appearances indicate a recognition that there are no easy answers. The question is whether he can adjust rapidly enough to stabilize a fragile organization while maintaining the ideals that gained him the position in the first place.

The coming weeks will also test the board’s dedication to long-term thinking in an environment that constantly demands short-term survival.

What is evident is that the Baggies’ plight is inextricably linked to the decisions made before Ramsay arrived.

Until recruitment, tactical identity, and leadership are truly aligned, any head coach, regardless of pedigree, risks inheriting the same cycle of instability.

The most recent results may serve as a wake-up call, but whether they result in serious course corrections remains the defining question of West Brom’s season.