View: Tactical switch by Bilic allowed West Brom fringe player to flourish in 2-0 win v Luton
West Brom manager Slaven Bilic made a bit of a surprise decision in his team selection on Saturday when Dara O’Shea started at right-back over Darnell Furlong for the 2-0 win against Luton.
Although O’Shea has impressed since breaking into the senior squad this season, it would be fair to say he had a torrid time against Cardiff in the last Championship fixture and Furlong has not done a lot wrong to suggest he should be dropped.
However, the decision to swap O’Shea, who is usually a centre-back, for Furlong was a tactical masterstroke by Bilic, as it allowed left-back Conor Townsend to flourish on the other side of the back-four.
Townsend, 26, has been a bit of a fringe player ever since he joined West Brom from Scunthorpe in 2018.
He has started just 18 Championship fixtures since he was snapped up by the Baggies, with eight of them coming this season mainly due to Kieran Gibbs’ injury issues and the uncertainty surrounding Nathan Ferguson’s future.
The ex-Scunthorpe left-back has attracted criticism for some of his displays but every now and then he manages to switch it on and be one of the best players on the pitch.
One of those displays came on Saturday when Albion beat Luton to return to the top of the Championship table.
According to stats by WhoScored, Townsend completed two key passes at The Hawthorns, which was the most he’d completed in a single game since the 2-2 draw against Barnsley in October.
Townsend also made three clearances, made one interception, completed two long balls and won six tackles – which was more than any other player on the pitch.
The left-back’s impressive display was enough for him to earn a 8.01 rating and WhoScored’s man of the match award.
Some West Brom fans on Twitter were also impressed with Townsend’s display:
https://twitter.com/wba_ethan/status/1223742645861847041
https://twitter.com/TalkWBA/status/1223682326305169408
Townsend’s strong performance could be put down to the fact that he was allowed to push a lot higher up the pitch due to O’Shea being played at right-back.
Furlong is, like Townsend, an attack-minded full-back but when Albion have two full-backs both pushing too far forward, they have been exposed at the back.
However O’Shea stayed back a lot more than Townsend did against Luton, with Albion at times looking as though they were playing with a back-three with Townsend acting more as a wing-back.
WhoScored’s heatmap shows how much more advanced a role Townsend played on the left flank [top of pitch] compared to O’Shea on the right [bottom of pitch].
It will be interesting to see if Bilic continues with this tactic now that it has been proven to work.
Although, Graeme Jones’ Luton are the worst team in the Championship and once Gibbs and Ferguson are available to play, you would imagine they could come in for Townsend.
In other West Brom news, Mason Holgate has discussed his loan spell at The Hawthorns.