Phillips Exclusive: West Brom outcast could knock on Bilic’s door and demand answers
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…
Kamil Grosicki could knock on Slaven Bilic’s door and demand to know why he’s not getting an opportunity if West Brom’s form fails to improve, according to Kevin Phillips.
Albion showed glimpses that they were getting their season underway with impressive performances in defeats to Tottenham and Manchester United before beating Sheffield United 1-0 at The Hawthorns.
However, that hard work was undone when the Baggies were hammered 5-1 on their own turf by Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Grosicki, 32, has not played in the Premier League since helping the Black Country club win promotion from the Championship but was on the bench at the weekend for the first time since the opening day of the campaign.
Last week, the Poland international scored twice for the Under-23s in a Premier League 2 win over Sunderland.
Phillips claims Grosicki needs to keep doing what he’s doing by impressing with every opportunity he gets but the ex-West Brom striker does admit that it might not be long before the winger is banging on Bilic’s door.
“All he can do is keep on doing what he’s doing,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“When you get asked to play in the Under-23s, you just go and perform. Don’t toss it off. Don’t just go out there and be half-hearted. Go out there, be professional, do your job and that’s all you can do. And then you keep reminding the manager why he bought you to the football club.
“At the minute, he probably doesn’t see a way in.
“If the form was bad you could knock on the door and say ‘look, I scored two this week, we haven’t played particularly well, why am I not getting an opportunity?’. You just have to be a bit patient.
“You’d like to see him given an opportunity but unfortunately, you don’t see that happening very soon.
“All he can do is just perform when asked to play for the Under-23s.”
Grosicki made 14 appearances for West Brom in the Championship last season after arriving from Hull City in the January transfer window.
Most of those appearances were as a substitute but the Polish speedster still managed to have a decent impact off the bench.
West Brom’s substitutes are lacking impact this season so it is strange that Bilic has not turned to someone like Grosicki to help dig his team out of a whole in the second half of matches.
Even though he’s 32, he’s still one of the fastest players in the squad and let’s not forget that as well as his double against Sunderland’s Under-23s, Grosicki also scored a hat-trick for Poland in their win over Finland in October.
West Brom’s backs are up against the wall at the moment so why not see what the former Hull man can do in upcoming games?
In other West Brom news, Adrian Durham has recalled the moment this ex-Albion ace left him “mesmerised” at The Hawthorns.
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