View: This is the reason West Brom lost at the death v Spurs
Defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday was a particularly difficult one to take for many West Brom fans, after a spirited performance by the Baggies.
In a meeting with one of the form Premier League sides, the Baggies created 12 shots and held Spurs for 88 minutes.
However, they came unstuck late on thanks to a Harry Kane goal, which left them 18th in the table with just three points from their first eight matches.
Tactics analyst for Spurs podcast The Extra Inch Nathan Clark argued that West Brom grew tired later on in the game and that allowed Jose Mourinho’s side to come on strong.
A close look at the stats suggests that in terms of chances, this is certainly the case. According to InfoGol, Spurs’ two biggest chances came after the 65th minute, with their best chance of game, Kane’s goal, coming in 88th minute.
Until the 67th minute, Spurs’ best chance came through Son Heung-Min and that was just a 0.28 expected goals chance (via InfoGol). In fact, Son’s chance was the only shot better than 0.10 xG that Spurs took until the 50th minute.
By comparison, the Baggies had the best chance of the first half, with Karlan Grant’s botched header a 0.35 xG opportunity (via FBRef). Callum Robinson took two shots, gave three key passes and has a cross cleared off the line in 67 minutes on the pitch (via WhoScored), while his replacement failed Grady Diangana failed to have a shot, complete a dribble or give a key pass.
Now this is not necessarily to blame Diangana, but rather to illustrate that West Brom’s attack faded towards the end of the match.
The trend shown here has not been the case in all matches this season and the Baggies were much improved in the second half against Brighton and Hove Albion. Furthermore, Bilic’s side made a poor start against Fulham and were 2-0 down by half-time.
Whatever way around, it seems that West Brom have been unable to sustain their performance levels for the full 90 minutes so far this season (Chelsea at home also comes to mind). In terms of solving it, the onus falls onto Bilic, who needs to change something in terms of selection, conditioning and substitutes.
The fact is that at times this season his side have been very good, but as of yet, they have not put in a 90 minute performance worthy of their first win.
In other West Brom news, View: Why West Brom star tipped to be ‘top, top player’ is crucial v Man United