View: Leading the line for xA – the Baggies have a secret attacking weapon
With six goals from their opening six Premier League games and just 3.4 expected goals generated, West Brom certainly need to find some attacking solutions going forward.
Matheus Pereira and Grady Diangana are yet to hit the heights that they reached in the Championship, while summer addition Karlan Grant is still finding his feet.
However, one player that appears to have hit the ground running is defender Darnell Furlong. The former Queens Park Rangers man arrived at The Hawthorns last season and has since made the right-back spot his own.
Starting five of West Brom’s Premier League matches so far, the 24-year-old is leading the side in terms of expected assists, is second in terms of key passes and has completed the most crosses into the penalty area. Furthermore, he has completed 29 progressive passes, 14 final third entries and 134 passes in total (via FBRef).
With a 65.4% pass completion rate, Furlong does need to improve on his accuracy, but it does also highlight his offensive intent and desire to play progressive and dangerous balls forward. With 84.7% of his short passes completed, he certainly can retain the ball well, but still has room for improvement.
With Pereira positioned out on the right so far this season, rather than in the number 10 role he occupied for much of last year, Baggies boss Slaven Bilic will be hoping to see him continue to develop his partnership with Furlong. As a right-back who is able to overlap, the Brazilian playmaker should be granted more license to drive inside to either create for Grant or combine with Conor Gallagher and Filip Krovinovic.
West Brom have struggled defensively this season with 14 goals conceded in the Premier League already, and there remain doubts about Furlong’s abilities in his own area. With 1.8 interceptions per game he is able to cut out passes, but his tackles and blocks lag behind a number of his teammates.
At 24 and playing at this level for the first time since the 2014/15 season, he can still improve on this though. Given his attacking quality and ability to create, he is definitely worth working with.
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