‘Sell him’, ‘My nan’s better’: Many West Brom fans urge club to oust player after loss v H’field
West Brom stopper Sam Johnstone certainly didn’t cover himself in glory during the 2-1 defeat to Huddersfield Town on Friday evening.
The Baggies keeper was unable to deal with an early free-kick from the Terriers, pushing the ball back into the danger area for former Albion loanee Chris Willock to fire home.
And for many Albion fans, his costly misjudgement was a source of much frustration.
Several took to social media in the aftermath of that game to express their indignation, with some even calling for the keeper to be sold this summer.
But are their frustrations justified?
If we compare him to recently emerging Leeds United stopper Illan Meslier, we can see that he does fall short a little bit.
Johnstone has conceded 0.89 goals per game this season from an xCG of 0.94, giving him a surplus of 0.05, as per Wyscout.
By comparison, Meslier has an xCG surplus of 0.11.
Similarly, Meslier has made 5.8% more reflex saves per game, and makes nearly twice as many short passes.
That’s not to say that Johnstone is a bad player by any means, but certainly you could argue that he needs to do more if he is to prove to his doubters that he is ready for a step up to the top flight.
Greater consistency would go an awfully long way towards doing that.
He has talent, there’s no doubt about that, but he needs to apply it more often and with greater confidence.
Here are some of the best tweets from West Brom fans:
https://twitter.com/PallettJack/status/1284222737129582594?s=20
https://twitter.com/Nathxn_mills/status/1284223808044498944?s=20
In other West Brom news, Adrian Durham has slammed this Albion player after a clip of him went viral on Twitter.
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