Journalist Luke Hatfield has laughed off suggestions that West Brom manager Valerien Ismael is out of his depth at the Hawthorns.

Following the recent defeat to Fulham, a Baggies supporter on Twitter labelled the Frenchman "tactically inept" – but Hatfield has responded to those claims by calling it a "joke".

What's the latest news with Ismael?

Despite West Brom heading into the final international break of the year sitting third in the Championship table, the Hawthorns faithful still don't appear to have warmed to Ismael.

The Baggies responded to that damaging 3-0 loss at Craven Cottage by picking up four points from two games but have slipped six points behind Fulham in the race for automatic promotion.

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West Brom had been occupying one of those top-two places for the majority of the season before their form suffered a huge dip, with Saturday's draw with Middlesbrough meaning it's now three wins in seven.

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ENTER GIVEAWAY

Baggies supporters were bearing with Ismael's style at the beginning of the campaign when they were winning matches, but their patience appears to be wearing thin following their recent slump.

But Hatfield thinks that Ismael is more than capable of doing the job in hand.

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What did Hatfield say?

He told GIVEMESPORT: "It's a little bit laughable for me. To claim the manager is out of his depth when he picked up Barnsley in the relegation-zone and got them into the play-offs and has had Albion in the top-three for the majority of the season is a bit of a joke."

Is Ismael being unfairly treated?

Earlier on in the campaign, some of the criticism the Frenchman was receiving was slightly over the top, considering West Brom actually topped the table at points.

Playing an unpopular style of football is fine if it brings results, but once you stop winning, you're in trouble, which is the problem facing Ismael right now.

Baggies supporters want one of the two, and at present, they're getting neither, so they're well within their right to moan.

As Hatfield stated, branding Ismael out of his depth is slightly exaggerated considering the fine job he's done in English football, but he needs to start playing a more attractive brand of football or start winning matches.