‘A lot of average teams’ – BT Sport pundit delivers verdict on West Brom PL survival
BT Sport pundit Adrian Clarke believes that West Brom will be relegated from the Premier League this season and criticised their summer recruitment.
The Baggies have endured a difficult start to the season, picking up just three points from their opening seven matches.
Monday’s defeat away to Fulham left them in the bottom three and the former Arsenal midfielder believes that the club did not strengthen its backline sufficiently over the summer.
“It’s a bit early to write them off completely because [there are] quite a lot of average teams in the bottom end of the Premier League at the moment, but it’s not looking great,” he told the BT Sport Football Writers Podcast.
“I don’t think that they strengthened their defence well enough, or maybe central midfield. They started this season with the [Jake] Livermore-Romaine Sawyers axis, and I think that’s been found out a little bit.
“Conor Gallagher’s come in alongside [Filip] Krovinovic, and I think they’ve added a bit more quality. They signed Karlan Grant – [a] good player in the Championship, but is he the guy [they] can rely on to keep them up? I don’t think any of us can be sure of that. So, hand on heart, I’m pretty sure West Brom will get relegated this season.”
Close battle
While West Brom have been struggling in recent weeks, there remain a number of teams that could well be sucked into a relegation battle.
Sheffield United and Burnley have picked up just one point so far, while Fulham and Brighton and Hove Albion have only built marginal gaps above the bottom three.
In terms of summer acquisitions, the arrival of Branislav Ivanovic at the back has improved things but with Ahmed Hegazi leaving, the Baggies do appear light in defence.
However, the permanent signings of Grady Diangana and Matheus Pereira were positive, even if neither is yet to fully hit their stride this season, while Karlan Grant has one goal from his first three starts.
The worrying stat for West Brom is their expected goals differential, which ranks them as being the worst team in the division by some margin. Per 90 minutes, the Baggies xGDiff is -1.21, with the next worst being Crystal Palace on -0.47 (via FBRef). If they are to turn things around, Bilic needs to find improvements at both ends.
In other West Brom news, View: Bilic must make wholesale changes after dismal West Brom display v Fulham