View: Axe 30y/o, build team around youngster – Three things Bilic can do to spark life into WBA
On Monday night West Brom lost 2-0 to Fulham, a disastrous result in this early stage of the season and Baggies fans are right to be worried.
Albion now sit in the bottom three and with some tough games coming up it is hard to see where the team’s first win may come from this season.
West Brom need to improve and they need to do it quickly and outside of the transfer window, this improvement it going to have to be made on the training ground.
Albion face Tottenham and Manchester United in their next two games which makes it unlikely that the Baggies will pick up a league win until late November.
With the wait for a first Premier League win of the season getting longer by the week, what can Bilic do to turn around his side’s fortunes in the short term?
1.) Play his better players in their preferred position.
This point is pretty heavily aimed at Matheus Pereira. The Brazilian was woeful against Fulham and created nothing before being hooked in the 58th minute. Bilic keeps playing the 24-year-old on the right hand side when it’s clear that he is more effective through the middle, in a number 10 role. If Albion want to bring Karlan Grant into the game more often, because he barely touched the ball at Craven Cottage, then Pereira needs to play centrally. This could mean a change of system for the Baggies but if Bilic keeps using the system he has used so far this season, the performances won’t improve.
2.) Build the midfield around Conor Gallagher and drop Jake Livermore
Gallagher was the best Albion player on the pitch against Fulham. Admittedly, that’s not a hard feat to achieve but he was very good non the less. The young Chelsea loanee made more tackles than anyone else on the pitch and looked like he had been playing Premier League football for years, despite him being only 20. He turned in a much better performance than 30-year-old Jake Livermore who has thoroughly underwhelmed this season. We propose that Bilic switches to a four-two-three-one formation, with Gallagher and Krovinovic in the centre of midfield. This opens up the option for Bilic to play a number 10, a position in which Pereira would slide straight in. But who would move to the right-hand side?
3.) Keep Callum Robinson involved
Bilic may have said that he now considers Robinson as a forward but he has spent the majority of his career as a winger. That is why he’s the perfect candidate to slot into the available right-wing position our imaginary line up has free. In this new line up, Albion would have Grady Diangana, Pereira and Robinson all in their preferred positions behind Grant. The new Baggies striker would now have an extra man supporting him which will create more chances for him to score. Robinson is always a danger when he’s on the pitch and his brace against Chelsea has shown that. He has scored a third of Albion’s Premier League goals this season so it makes no sense that he should be benched.
These are some easy changes that we think could instantly improve West Brom’s chances of getting some points on the board. It sacrifices defensive cover for more attacking threat but at the moment Albion are weak at the back and in attack. With this new system, it at least opens the possibility that the Baggies might score some more goals.
In other West Brom news, one Baggies player’s stats made for grim reading after the loss to Fulham.
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