View: Why Zohore has a lot to prove at West Brom once football resumes
Kenneth Zohore is the most expensive player that West Brom have signed since dropping down to the Championship in 2018.
According to the Telegraph, Albion paid Cardiff City £8million to sign the 26-year-old striker but since his move to the West Midlands, he has been nothing more than a bit-part player for Slaven Bilic.
Zohore has made 18 appearances in all competitions, scoring five goals in the process.
On the face of it, five goals in 18 matches is not that bad but when you dig a little deeper, you can understand why Bilic has overlooked the Danish forward so often this season.
Zohore started the first three Championship matches of the season against Nottingham Forest, Millwall and Luton Town.
However, according to stats by WyScout, the ex-Cardiff striker mustered just one shot on target in that time and was eventually dropped by Bilic following his blank away at Luton.
In the following game, Zohore came off the bench at Reading and had a major impact for the Baggies.
In 20 minutes, he had four shots at goal with three being on target and one of those being a goal from the penalty spot to earn Albion a point at the Madejski.
Zohore’s impressive display off the bench at Reading then saw him rewarded with a spot back in Bilic’s starting line-up. The Dane then scored for a second consecutive match from the penalty spot to help West Brom draw 1-1 at Derby.
Those two games were as good as it really got for Zohore, who then failed to show he could be the man who’d make an impact off the bench for Albion.
When Hal Robson-Kanu and Charlie Austin are also options up front, it was vital for Zohore to have game-changing impacts as a substitute but that simply didn’t happen for him.
In his next four appearances off the bench, Zohore failed to register a single shot on target with his biggest blunder coming as West Brom lost 1-0 to Leeds in October to end their unbeaten start to the season.
With Albion a goal behind, Zohore was put through on goal in the first minute of stoppage time at the end of the match.
It wasn’t the easiest of positions to be in but you still would have backed the Dane to force the goalkeeper into action at this point.
However what happened was inexcusable for an £8million striker in the Championship.
Zohore’s shot was wild, uncontrolled and just smacked of a striker who couldn’t handle the pressure of playing for a title-chasing team.
Zohore’s shot almost left the stadium it went that far over the bar.
West Brom need winners. They need players who can handle the pressure. They need players who are not going to crumble in the big matches and that is what Zohore did.
Since that match at Leeds in October, Zohore has started just two more league matches.
Robson-Kanu and Austin have shown time and time again that they can both make an impact off the bench and that they can both score goals in big games.
Zohore is lagging so far behind the two strikers who are keeping him out of the side that he hasn’t even made one of Bilic’s matchday squads in any of the last eight Championship matches.
If there is one player at The Hawthorns who needs to up his game before West Brom head into the Premier League it’s Zohore.
Of course, it remains to be seen if the Baggies will go up but Zohore is unlikely to be a part of Bilic’s top-flight plans unless things change.
In other West Brom news, Paul Merson has delivered his verdict on plans for a 22-team Premier League next season.