And John Mousinho is adamant that one of his ‘top performers’ this season will bounce back and return to his usual high standards.
The Austrian gifted the Baggies a 25th-minute lead on Saturday when he fumbled Alex Mowatt’s shot from outside the box into the net.
Minutes later, he then spilled Mike Johnston’s shot, with Grady Diangana capitalising from close range to make it 2-0.
Mousinho’s much-changed side subsequently slumped to a humiliating 5-1 defeat, marking a depressing seventh successive away loss.
But the head coach is convinced the issues run deeper than the summer signing who has dislodged Will Norris in goal.
Mousinho told The News: ‘Nico wasn’t the problem. The first goal he will be disappointed with, but the players in front of him have got to do a lot better.
‘The second goal, whatever happens with the goalkeeper, two players lose a challenge close to the halfway line on their winger and that’s unacceptable.
‘Nico has done well for us, everyone knows that. He has been excellent and is certainly up there in the top 3-4 performers for us this season.
‘He will bounce back, I have no issues with that, Nic will be absolutely fine. He is mentally strong.
‘He will take on board any criticism, he will take on board anything he needs to take on board – and he will be absolutely fine.’
Schmid’s first mistake heralded four goals in 19 minutes during a shocking end to the first half at The Hawthorns.
Jed Wallace grabbed the third after Andre Dozzell lost out on a tackle in midfield, with the fourth coming after Diangana beat the offside trap to collect Mason Holgate’s ball over the top.
John Swift completed the Baggies’ goals in the 56th minute, before Blues substitute Thomas Waddingham’s last-gasp consolation on his debut.
Mousinho added: ‘The first goal goes in, which I can live with, fine. It’s a mistake, but we can live with it. However, we completely went from then until half-time.
‘The problem we have, particularly away from home at the moment, is if we go a goal down, for some reason confidence drops, we stop doing the things we did well and then quickly concede goals.
‘There is no better example of that than the second goal. We’ve got Zak Swanson and Terry Devlin going into a challenge with Mikey Johnston on the near side and we lose it.
‘Two players going into one winger, two right-backs, and we lose the challenge. He emerges out the other side and the ball is in the back of the net.
‘The third goal is very similar. We lose a challenge on the halfway line and players run past us. That was the most disappointing thing for me, we started to lose challenges and not track runners.
‘We’ve come away from the last two games thinking physically we look like we’re willing to put our foot in and win those challenges, yet we lost almost everywhere on Saturday.
‘Obviously we made changes, but it’s the same players. I watched Terry Devlin absolutely smash a tackle in the 93rd minute against Stoke and come away with the ball.’
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