‘He was unbelievable’ – Bilic blown away by West Brom player who was ‘at his best’ v Derby
Slaven Bilic has been waxing lyrical about Grady Diangana for his performance as West Brom moved top of the Championship table by beating Derby on Wednesday.
Diangana, 22, scored his eight goals of the season in the first half to set Albion on their way to victory with Dara O’Shea doubling the leading and sealing all three points late on at The Hawthorns.
It was a huge win for the Baggies but there was a slight concern in the second half when Diangana was taken off injured.
Fortunately, Albion boss Bilic is unconcerned by Diangana’s fitness and has heaped praise on the young winger for his performance versus the Rams.
“It was only tight,” Bilic said, as quoted by the Express & Star.
“Hopefully, and I think so, it’s not an injury, just a precaution.
“He will be assessed, it looks okay but it would be instrumental to keep him.
“He is one of the reasons why we played so well, not only offensively, but defensively he was unbelievable.
“He was focused. He won a lot of balls from them high up the pitch.
“He scored a goal and every time he got on the ball he had short runs or long runs – he was Grady at his best.”
Bilic makes a good point about Diangana because as good as he was in the attack, he also did superbly at tracking back and helping West Brom defend against a side that saw more of the ball than they did.
Stats by WhoScored show that Diangana completed two tackles against Derby. Jake Livermore was the only player on the pitch to complete more than on the on-loan West Ham winger [four].
Diangana also completed two key passes, had an 85 per cent pass success rate and, of course, got himself on the scoresheet after getting on the end of an inch-perfect pass by Kamil Grosicki.
This is the Diangana we have been waiting to see since the season restarted.
Yes, he scored against Hull at the weekend but the England Under-21 international was without doubt back to his best against Derby.
Hopefully he can start against Blackburn on Saturday after being forced off on Wednesday night but the signs do seem positive.
In other West Brom news, Albion fans have hit out at Nathan Ferguson for his tweet about the latest contract news at The Hawthorns.
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