View: Why Hal Robson-Kanu is undroppable for West Brom
Every single West Brom fan has an opinion about Hal Robson-Kanu.
When he joined the Baggies on a free transfer in August 2016, there were a lot of moans and groans about the club taking the cheap option rather than strengthening their attack with someone with proven Premier League quality and a strong goalscoring record.
Robson-Kanu had scored 30 goals in 228 appearances for Reading before being released by the Royals and after a dazzling Cruyff Turn at Euro 2016, he was snapped up by Tony Pulis to bolster his striker options.
It was understandable to have concerns about that transfer and, up until this season, it would be fair to say that the Wales international had done exactly what had been expected of him at The Hawthorns – not a great deal.
However, this season has seen Robson-Kanu become one of the most influential players in Slaven Bilic’s squad, even though his goalscoring record is still not what many would expect from a centre-forward playing at the Championship’s leading club.
Robson-Kanu has scored seven goals in 27 Championship appearances this season, with only one of them coming in his last 13 outings. However it is way too simplistic to judge the ex-Reading man on his goal return because he brings so much more to the table than sticking the ball in the back of the net.
Firstly, Robson-Kanu ranks ninth in the West Brom squad for shots at goal per 90 minutes of action in the Championship [WhoScored], even though he has been Bilic’s most popular choice as starting striker this season.
Charlie Austin, Callum Robinson, Matheus Pereira, Kyle Edwards and Matt Phillips all rank above Robson-Kanu in that category, which just goes to show that Bilic’s tactics do not revolve around the Welshman firing shots at goal.
And then there are key passes where Robson-Kanu ranks fifth in the squad for average per game out of the players with more than five appearances.
The 30-year-old’s link-up play with his fellow attackers is the most vital part of his game. He finds them with passes. He drags defenders out of position. He creates space. He wins headers and has the work-rate that far exceeds some of the Championship’s top goalscorers at other clubs.
Robson-Kanu is one of the most underrated strikers in the second-tier this season and even some Albion fans can offer the Welshman more praise than what they are giving him at the moment.
A story was doing the rounds on social media on Monday that criticised Robson-Kanu for his lack of goals and the fact he did not have any shots on target against Nottingham Forest at the weekend. That story also called for Bilic to drop the Welshman.
That story has since been deleted after a huge backlash from West Brom fans on Twitter.
Robson-Kanu is West Brom’s first-choice striker and should be for the rest of the season.
No one has tied the attack together better than he has done under Bilic.
In other West Brom news, our Super Fans have selected their best and worst performances against Forest.