Tony Mowbray admitted Albion lacked “intensity” and “bravery” against Derby County on Easter Monday.
The Rams claimed a 3-1 victory at The Hawthorns thanks to first-half efforts from Ebou Adams and Jerry Yates, as well as a late strike from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.
The Baggies boss says his team gave away “ridiculously easy goals” and accepts they’ll now have to take the criticism.
Mowbray said: “We lost some ridiculously easy goals from their perspective, which is so unlike us I think.
“I genuinely didn’t feel any threat from the opposition’s set-plays – Kyle Bartley and Torbjørn Heggem are normally heading them away every week.
“Today, before we could even blink really, we were a goal down from a set-play which is so unlike the team.
“I thought in the first-half, and I’ve told the team this so I’m not talking out of turn, I thought we lacked courage to play. Is it a pressure to play at home? It shouldn’t be. It should be a privilege and to enjoy the ball and attack and play forward.
“We played sideways and backwards too much, especially in the first-half. I thought we improved in the second-half after the changes and yet we lost another ridiculous goal at the death.
“I thought there were some positive signs in that half-an-hour after the change. We looked as if we could get back into the game, but we’ve left with nothing and we’re disappointed.
“I’ve questioned the players in there. I’ve questioned their bravery really. Not bravery in a physical sense, but bravery in the sense of getting on the ball because that’s the way I believe West Bromwich Albion should play, especially at home.
“We should be a team attacking the goal, having the ball, playing with intensity and putting shots and crosses in. That didn’t happen.
“I felt the team was pretty good after the changes and on the front foot and pushing Derby back. We were getting the ball in the box. I know they’ve got a lot of big guys and they defended pretty well.
“We had a few opportunities and we scored a good goal. The pin in our bubble was the really soft third goal to kill the game off. At 2-1, I stood on the side and believed we were going to equalise.
“We stand here now having lost 3-1 and we have to take the criticism and we have to take the questioning of the desire of the team. The team are hard enough on themselves and they’ll question each other about how that happened today.
“I hope they’re having conversations. I’ve told them what I think, what I watched today and what I saw. I don’t think it’s too harsh to say we lacked bravery. They might not like to hear that, but I have to be honest to the public who have come to support us.
“I was very disappointed today. Where was the real intensity and desire to put right the difficult day we had at Coventry last week?”
