Slaven Bilic explains reason for 27y/o West Brom absentee v Birmingham
West Brom defender Conor Townsend was a victim of circumstance in his side’s 0-0 draw against Birmingham City on Saturday, according to manager Slaven Bilic.
The 27-year-old was left out of the Baggies’ 20-man squad for the derby clash, despite having started each of Albion’s previous eight Championship encounters.
Kieran Gibbs came in at left-back following a lengthy absence from the starting XI that last saw him feature on New Year’s Day.
But now Bilic has spoken out on his decision to omit Townsend entirely, and has revealed that it was purely tactical, rather than anything related to injury or off-field issues.
As quoted by the Birmingham Mail, he said: “I spoke with every player that wasn’t in the squad.
“It was a tough decision.
“Even though you have got more players on the bench, we wanted to have a few more attacking options and we had a couple of defenders on the bench with Dara [O’Shea] and Barts [Kyle Bartley] and we had a couple of midfielders and we wanted a couple of strikers on the bench.
“There was no room for Conor.”
To be fair to Bilic, you can understand why he made this decision.
As per Wyscout, over the course of the season, Townsend has had a lower dribble success rate, a lower pass completion rate, and a lower total action success rate than Gibbs.
Granted, he has made more interceptions, more clearances, and won more defensive duels per game this term, but in a match like this, when the opponent is there for the taking, it makes sense to go with the more proficient attacking option.
Still, Townsend will feel hard done by to miss out on a place in the squad altogether, although it probably speaks more as to the strength and depth that the Baggies boast as opposed to being any kind of reflection on the player himself.
In other West Brom news, ‘Dreadful’, ‘Shocking’ – Many West Brom fans tear one player to shreds v Birmingham.