Danny Wright

Wed 11 March 2020 7:44, UK

West Brom take on local rivals Birmingham City at The Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon as they aim to return to winning ways.

Slaven Bilic has had a miserable couple of weeks after seeing his side lose at home to relegation-threatened Wigan before being knocked out of the FA Cup and letting slip of top-spot in the Championship.

Albion have a great recent record against Birmingham, winning five of their last six against the Second City club while not losing against them at The Hawthorns since 2005.

However if Blues play to their strengths on Saturday, they could cause all kinds of issues for the Baggies.

According to stats by WhoScored, Birmingham rank third in the Championship for the number of goals score from set-pieces this season [17].

That means 39 per cent of their league goals have come via the way of corners and free-kicks and, unsurprisingly, no team in the second-tier has won a higher percentage of their aerial duel than Blues [56.1%].

As for West Brom, they rank joint-sixth in the Championship for goals conceded from set-pieces this season – 39 per cent of the total goals that have been scored against them.

It’s been clear to Albion fans all season that their weakness is defending set-pieces and that has largely led to the criticism of goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, who has been singled out as someone who’s failure to command his box properly leads to leaking goals from corners and free-kicks.

However the criticism of Johnstone has been quite unfair as this statistic about conceding goals from set-pieces is something that Bilic has to take responsibility for, as well as every other player who is defending them.

The last goal West Brom conceded from a set-piece was in their 1-0 defeat at the hands of Wigan last month.

It wasn’t scored directly from a corner but Albion’s efforts to clear the lines was, to put it mildly, laughable.

Wigan’s corner wasn’t a great one. It was floated in and cleared by Kyle Bartley before it had even reached the near post.

However Bartley’s clearing header only found the space between the six-yard box and required a second clearance to get it out of danger.

Filip Krovinovic was on the edge of the penalty area but was too slow to react to Bartley’s header and all he could do was kick the ball on the stretch and put it into further danger while under pressure from Wigan’s attacker.

Krovinovic’s hashed clearance fell to Wigan’s Cedric Kipre at the back-post, who tried to have a shot at goal on the volley but his miskick only found it’s way into the six-yard box.

West Brom then had another chance to clear the ball but, again, were too slow to react with Semi Ajayi and Bartley failing to deal with Kipre’s scuffed effort.

As a result, Kieffer Moore managed to touch the ball back to Sam Morsy [circled in red], who was completely unmarked by West Brom’s defence.

West Brom have averaged 17.2 clearances per game this season, the third-lowest average in the league [WhoScored].

While this is likely down to the fact that they are one of the top teams that have less defending to do, it just goes to show that hoofing the ball out and clearing your lines is something that Bilic might have to work on.

Albion had three failed attempts to clear the ball ahead of Wigan’s goal.

They need to make each and every attempt count when a team as good in the air as Birmingham arrive at The Hawthorns on Saturday.

In other West Brom news, Luke Dowling has shared an update on the club’s hunt for a new full-time Under-23s boss.