View: West Brom could return to PL in style this season thanks to one classy player
OPINION
It is tough to point out a player who was better than Romaine Sawyers in West Brom’s 2-0 win against Stoke City at the Bet365 Stadium on Monday night.
Saywers, 28, ran the show for the Baggies as they returned to the top of the Championship table by picking up three points and their third clean sheet of the season in Staffordshire.
Matt Phillips and second-half substitute Hal Robson-Kanu grabbed the goals for Slaven Bilic’s side but it was the performance of the Albion academy graduate that grabbed the attention of fans and Sky Sports on Monday, with the midfielder picking up the broadcaster’s man of the match award after the game.
It is no surprise that Sawyers was seen as the best player on the pitch.
According to stats by WhoScored, the former Walsall and Brentford midfielder completed 95 passes against Stoke.
Jake Livermore completed the second-most passes with 52, so Sawyers almost managed to make double the number of passes of any other player on the pitch for both sides.
It was a true passing masterclass by the 28-year-old – and there was one moment in the second half when a beautiful outside-of-the-boot pass almost led to a third Baggies goal after he released Phillips down the right-wing.
It is hard to believe that West Brom managed to re-sign Sawyers for just £3million in the summer.
Stats by WhoScored show that no other midfielder in the Championship has completed more than the 1044 passes that Sawyers has completed so far this season while his 91.9 per cent accuracy is only bettered by two other players.
West Brom are top of the table and have lost just once in the league all season.
The Black Country club stands a massive chance of returning to the Premier League in style with Sawyers pulling the strings in the midfield.
In other West Brom news, fans are blown away by the transformation of this 28-year-old.