Sky Sports pundit surprised by Bilic decision ahead of West Brom v Stoke
Danny Higginbotham is surprised by Slaven Bilic’s decision to drop West Brom centre-back Semi Ajayi from his starting line-up for the clash against Stoke.
Ahead of Albion’s meeting with the Potters at The Hawthorns on Monday night, it was confirmed that Ahmed Hegazi was returning to the side to partner Kyle Bartley in the heart of the back-four.
Since joining West Brom from Rotherham in the summer, Ajayi has played every minute of every Championship fixture for Bilic but he misses out against Stoke.
Sky Sports pundit Higginbotham is not quite sure why Bilic has done that but has full faith in the two starting centre-backs.
“I think with Ajayi, it’s a little bit surprising. He’s played every minute of every game so far in the Championship and one thing that West Brom love to do is to press high and with Ajayi playing at centre-back it enables them to do that,” said Higginbotham on Sky Sports Main Event ahead of kick-off [07:36pm].
“Obviously he’s not in there so they will miss his pace at the back but you look at the experience of Bartley and Hegazi. They’ve got a lot between them.
“You can see before the game they’re talking about the things they need to do.”
It is quite obvious why Hegazi is starting over Ajayi and that is because West Brom are leaking goals from set-pieces.
Only Huddersfield have conceded more goals from corners than West Brom in the Championship so far this season and Bilic has to make an effort to sort that issue out.
Hegazi is a much slower player than Ajayi and is not as good on the ball but he can dominate in the air and that might be what Albion need to stem the flow of goals they have been conceding in recent weeks.
In other West Brom news, Kevin Phillips has claimed that these two Albion players are wanted men.