‘If West Brom want to survive…’ – Exclusive: Phillips reacts as Bilic slams Baggies star
We’re delighted to welcome former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns…
Kevin Phillips has backed Matheus Pereira to improve after Slaven Bilic slammed the West Brom star for his performance against Fulham on Monday.
Bilic was quoted by the Birmingham Mail as saying that Pereira’s display “wasn’t good enough” in the 2-0 defeat at Craven Cottage.
The 24-year-old was substituted off after less than an hour, leading to frustration among Albion fans as the Brazilian is viewed as one of the only players who could have sparked a comeback against Scott Parker’s side.
Phillips has suggested that Pereira was trying too hard and not releasing the ball quick enough against Fulham while also claiming that Bilic could have been unhappy with the attacker’s display because he wasn’t following his tactical orders.
“I wouldn’t go overboard because those sorts of flair players are going to have an off day,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“It’s not that he’s not trying because I wouldn’t say any of those West Brom players have given up and stopped trying.
“If you were to pin Slaven down and ask for the reasons why he thought Pereira was poor, he might have a different view. Tactically, he might not have done what he was told.
“But he looked to get on the ball and maybe he was just overdoing it, overplaying it, trying to take too many people on, didn’t see the simple options and you’re going to have games like that.
“The big thing for me is that he’s got to adapt quickly because he’s becoming a name who teams identify and double-up on him.
“He’s got to be a little bit more clever in releasing the ball earlier and getting it again.
“It was one of those performances. Listen, he’s been one of their star players and I’m not going to go overboard on him.
“But if West Brom want to survive, you can’t afford too many more performances like that.”
Stats by WyScout show that Pereira completed just eight passes in 58 minutes on the pitch.
He also failed to complete any of the three dribbles he attempted, had one shot which was off target and didn’t make any progressive runs when his season average is 1.36 per 90 minutes.
Pereira had a shocker – there are no two ways about it.
While we don’t want to see the manager hitting out at players in public, you feel that in this case it was warranted and might put the fire back in Pereira’s belly after such a dire outing at Craven Cottage.
In other West Brom news, Bilic could axe one player for a decisive match against Tottenham this weekend.
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