View: Bilic must make wholesale changes after dismal West Brom display v Fulham
Slaven Bilic was less than pleased after West Brom suffered a crushing 2-0 defeat to Fulham on Monday and he was right to be upset.
A certain level of commitment and energy was lacking for the Baggies throughout, and the space that Aleksandar Mitrovic and Bobby Decordova-Reid found themselves in inside the West Brom box before combining for the opener will have frustrated the Croatian massively.
After the match, he said that many of the good things that his side had done in recent weeks disappeared at Craven Cottage and demanded more from his players going forward.
“We had two really good performances recently against Burnley and Brighton and it gave us confidence,” he told the club’s official website.
“It showed in the shape, patterns and quality that the guys showed tonight but after five minutes, it disappeared in every aspect of the game. I told the guys that we can’t rely on something to happen. We can’t just rely on quality and maybe some teams can, but we can’t so we have to be more hungry, focused and committed otherwise it’s going to be very difficult for us.”
However, Bilic himself also needs to answer a few questions after this match. For a few weeks now, the former West Ham boss has not been able to get the most out of his best players and that was really evident against the Cottagers.
In Monday’s match, the Baggies had just one shot on target and generated 0.6 expected goals (via FBRef). Centre-forward Karlan Grant only had 28 touches of the ball, while star men from last season Matheus Pereira and Grady Diangana completed just three dribbles between them.
The experiment of playing Pereira from the right looks increasingly confused and fans are growing frustrated. The Brazilian was very much on the periphery of this game and completed just 10 passes before being substituted on 55 minutes (via FBRef).
The midfield three of Jake Livermore, Filip Krovinovic and Conor Gallagher is another area that is not working, giving further reason to reinstate Pereira in the number 10 role. Gallagher was passing at just 65.8% on Monday, while Livermore completed just 13 passes from the base of the midfield. Livermore was withdrawn for Romaine Sawyers early, but Gallagher finished the match, a surprising show of faith from the boss given the youngsters wasteful showing.
Ahead of the next match, the midfield is a clear area for improvement. The Baggies have the worst defence in the division and have generated fewer expected goals than any other side in the division (via FBRef), so there are plenty of places that need to get better, but the lack of balance in the centre was so evident and is also the area where Bilic has the most quality options. With Sawyers on the bench and Pereira able to slot back into a role he excelled in last season, changes can be made.
The Croatian can criticise the lack of application all he likes, but at some point he needs to look at his set up and make the tweaks necessary.
In other West Brom news, View: Why Bilic is right to call out underperforming star