‘One of their best players’ – Exclusive: Kevin Phillips raves about West Brom midfielder
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 suggested that West Brom missed Romaine Sawyers during his recent three-match ban.
While Sawyers was suspended, Albion beat Preston 2-0 but were by no means at their flying best before losing at home to both Wigan and Newcastle.
The 28-year-old returned to Slaven Bilic’s starting line-up on Saturday as West Brom drew 0-0 with Swansea at the Liberty Stadium, so there was definitely an improvement of sorts.
Albion did perform a lot better than they did versus Wigan and in the first-half against Newcastle but were still unable to pick up all three points.
Sawyers, though, showed signs of being back to his best in South Wales with the three-match break seemingly serving him well.
And Phillips expects that the central midfielder will continue to hold down his spot in Bilic’s side for the rest of the season.
“I’ve said all along that Romaine Sawyers is one of West Brom’s bright lights this season, he’s been one of their best players,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“Obviously he wasn’t in the side last weekend and I’m not saying that was down to Sawyers not playing but it’s similar to Liverpool. It coincides with them when Jordan Henderson isn’t in the side so that’s how important Sawyers is to the West Brom team.
“Slaven has got his favourite 11 in his head and Sawyers is certainly one of those players. It’s not to say Rekeem Harper can’t hold his place because I thought he did very, very well the other night. But if Sawyers is fit and available he starts.”
Sawyers has played a lot of football this season, appearing 34 times across all competitions for the Baggies.
Before his ban, he had missed just two Championship games and played 90 minutes in eight games in a row before being sent off at Bristol City.
It’s good to see that he performed well at Swansea as it shows that the suspension could have been a blessing in disguise.
In other West Brom news, Darren Fletcher has criticised Albion fans for the poor atmosphere at The Hawthorns this week.