Bilic expects West Brom to announce new transfer tomorrow
Slaven Bilic expects West Brom to announce the arrival of ex-Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic on a free transfer tomorrow (Monday).
Speaking after the 3-0 defeat to Leicester at The Hawthorns on Sunday, as updated by Express & Star journalist Joseph Masi, Bilic confirmed that the 36-year-old’s move to The Hawthorns is to be made official over the course of the next 24 hours.
West Brom were truly underwhelming in their opening day defeat to the Foxes.
Bilic mixed up his formation and tactics by playing a 3-4-3 which saw Dara O’Shea and Kyle Bartley play either side of Semi Ajayi at the back.
For the first half, Bilic’s plan to frustrate Leicester worked as Brendan Rodgers’ side failed to create much of note in the opening 45 minutes.
But once Timothy Castagne headed in Leicester’s first goal, Bilic’s plan was pretty much thrown out of the window as the Baggies progressively got worse and worse.
Just before Bartley conceded a penalty for Jamie Vardy to make it 2-0 to Leicester, Bilic switched to a flat back-four with the ex-Swansea man alongside Ajayi.
Clearly, it didn’t work and we’re sat here now dissecting a 3-0 defeat in which the defence made mistake after mistake in the second period.
Ivanovic’s experience and leadership skills will, hopefully, provide a major boost to West Brom’s defence and we would expect to see him starting with Ajayi at centre-back as soon as he has got up to speed and is fully match fit.
Ivanovic captained Zenit St Petersburg to the Russian Premier League title last season and has also won the English Premier League three times with Chelsea.
His arrival could be a very clever and shrewd piece of business by Bilic and Luke Dowling.
In other West Brom news, Richard Keys has tipped Bilic to leave The Hawthorns before Christmas.
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