View: £4.5m-rated West Brom defender has horror show in 5-1 v Crystal Palace
West Brom endured a nightmarish afternoon on Sunday at The Hawthorns as they lost 5-1 to Crystal Palace and saw Matheus Pereira sent off.
With the score at 1-1 when the Brazilian was dismissed, the Baggies were certainly unfortunate and can be afforded the right to curse the luck with VAR.
However, the manner in which they collapsed after the red card was disappointing and Semi Ajayi, in particular, struggled to cope with Palace’s rampant attack.
The 27-year-old has been perhaps the best West Brom defender this season and has made that right-sided centre-back role in a back three his own in recent weeks.
Up against Wilfried Zaha, this was always going to be a difficult game and with one less man to support him, it was made harder. However, the former Arsenal man failed to show up.
Winning just 33% of his aerial duels and being dribbled past twice (via WhoScored), Ajayi was not at his combative best and failed to repeat the great job he did on Son Heung-Min when the Baggies face Tottenham Hotspur.
Ajayi was beaten on the outside by Patrick van Aanholt for the cross led to Christian Benteke’s first goal and failed to block the Belgian’s shot for his second. Now, his centre-back partners Branislav Ivanovic and Kyle Bartley were by no means better, but more has come to be expected of the Nigerian international.
Going forward, it is difficult to see what Slaven Bilic can do to help pick this Baggies side up. Frankly, they do not have enough defenders of Premier League quality to cope with the best attackers in the league and he was not backed enough in the transfer window.
Ivanovic simply does not have the speed or athleticism anymore and the Croatian had Ahmed Hegazi sold from underneath him. However, Ajayi has been good this season so far and he did not live up to his usual standards on Sunday, and that is disappointing.
In other West Brom news, ‘This is clear bias’ – Hollywood actor makes bold West Brom suggestion after loss v Palace