Slaven Bilic explains why Jake Livermore was hooked in West Brom 1-1 v Blackburn
West Brom manager Slaven Bilic was criticised for his decision to substitute Jake Livermore off in the second half of the 1-1 draw at Blackburn on Saturday.
Former Baggies defender Daryl Burgess questioned the Croatian’s call while plenty of fans took to Twitter to voice their concern about Rekeem Harper being chosen to replace the captain.
After the match, Bilic was asked about his substitutions.
Although he was happy with what Kamil Grosicki offered, he felt he needed to freshen up his attack by replacing him with Grady Diangana, who missed an absolute sitter after his introduction off the bench.
As for the decision to take Livermore off, Bilic says that was completely down to him wanting to add some more energy to his midfield.
“I wasn’t thinking about the games on Tuesday, no,” Bilic said after the game on Saturday, as quoted by the Express & Star. “If we were two up or three up then I would.
“Kamil was great, he was very good. But on that left-hand side we had so much space in that second half, it was the end product that was missing.
“I thought Grady in the same position – with his quality, with his fresh legs – I thought he could use it to create something dangerous. That’s why I did it.
“With Jake, I just wanted a reaction, some fresh legs.”
Bilic has been widely praised for his substitutions this season, and rightly so.
Charlie Austin [6] has scored more goals off the bench than any other player in the Championship while Grady Diangana has been directly involved in five goals when he’s been introduced into games as a sub [transfermarkt].
Bilic’s use of his squad mean that West Brom have won more points from losing positions than any other side in the Championship this season [24].
But on Saturday, Bilic got it wrong – to put it simply.
When it’s 1-1, we cannot just go gung-ho in the way we did at Ewood Park.
Although West Brom had their chances to score, Blackburn also had two or three massive chances to steal all three points for themselves.
That was because the midfield lost all shape and had no defensive steel once Livermore was taken off.
If you take away leadership, you can expect things to fall apart in the way they did.
If Bilic really needed to take Livermore off, Chris Brunt should have replaced him.
In other West Brom news, fans hailed this Albion player as being “better than Messi” against Blackburn.
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