‘Out of position’ – Exclusive: Phillips claims West Brom defender was ‘rusty’ v Newcastle
We’re delighted to welcome former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns…
Kevin Phillips has admitted that Kieran Gibbs had a slow start to his West Brom return on Tuesday night in the 3-2 defeat to Newcastle United.
Gibbs, 30, made his first appearance for the Baggies since New Years Day when Slaven Bilic named him to play at left-back in his starting line-up for the FA Cup fifth-round clash at The Hawthorns.
In total there were nine changes from the side that started against Wigan on Saturday, which perhaps explains the slow start against the Magpies.
Steve Bruce’s side were 2-0 up at half-time and added to that lead just after the break.
However West Brom were on top for large parts of the second half as they finally clicked into gear.
Phillips has suggested that Bilic might have made too many changes to his starting line-up but understands why he decided to do that.
“Slaven made nine changes, which you kind of expected. Whether I expected that many changes I’m not sure but I expected changes of course. When you look at the number of games West Brom have played compared to the Newcastle players, it’s a hell of a lot more,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“In the first half it looked like a team that hadn’t played for a while, they didn’t look as sharp as the Newcastle players and at times, Kieran probably looked out of position.
“But, as the game grew on, they came into it. In the second half, they were very unlucky not to have got it to a draw or to extra-time.
“When it started off, it wasn’t just Gibbs, everyone looked a bit rusty but as the game wore on they all grew into it and certainly in the last five or 10 minutes looked the better team.”
West Brom’s priority has always been to win promotion to the Premier League this season so Bilic was always bound to rest a number of key first-team players for the clash against Newcastle.
If there were one or two fewer changes to his side then Albion might have won that game with Filip Krovinovic showing off the bench in the second half that he was able to pull the strings against the Tyneside club.
In other West Brom news, Darren Fletcher has criticised Albion fans for the poor atmosphere at The Hawthorns on Tuesday.