‘Fantastic’ – Exclusive: Phillips blown away by £32.5k/wk West Brom player
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 been waxing lyrical about Sam Johnstone after the West Brom goalkeeper turned in a mega performance against Sheffield United on Saturday.
Albion won their first game of the Premier League season courtesy of a deflected goal in the first-half by Conor Gallagher.
Although it was the Chelsea loanee’s first goal in blue and white stripes, it was Johnstone’s performance in between the sticks that made the most headlines.
According to stats by WyScout, Johnstone made six saves from the six shots against him against the Blades and for 67 per cent of those saves he had to use his reflexes because the shot against him was made at close-range.
Ex-West Brom striker Phillips is delighted by the goalkeeper’s performances and is also happy that his former club managed to finally earn a league win.
“He’s a good goalkeeper. I said he played fantastic at Old Trafford,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“I watched the game here on Saturday with my mate who’s a big Baggies fan. He was jumping up and down in the living room because he loves the football club. He was raving about the goalkeeper.
“He’s a top ‘keeper, he makes some fantastic saves and again, he came to the rescue.
“I thought it was a fairly even game. It wasn’t the cleanest of strikes from Gallagher but ultimately it was a win.
“Confidence will be high going into the next game. Some of the games they’ve been unlucky to come away with nothing this season.”
Johnstone has had his critics during his time at The Hawthorns but it’s fair to say that a lot of those doubters have been silenced this season.
No, the £32,500-a-week [Spotrac] ace isn’t the best when it comes to dealing with crosses into the box and yes, every now and then he’s prone to a mistake.
But what goalkeepers don’t make mistakes?
Call us biased but in our opinion, Johnstone has been the best goalkeeper in the Premier League this season by quite some margin.
It will take a lot for him to match Ben Foster in the eyes of Baggies fans but he’s certainly on his way to becoming one of the club’s best goalkeepers of the Premier League era.
In other West Brom news, Bilic’s future at Albion remains on a “knife-edge”, according to David Ornstein.
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