View: Bilic must change mind on West Brom fringe player who outperformed starters in 19/20
West Brom defender Cedric Kipre is yet to start in the Premier League for the Baggies this season following his £900,000 arrival from Wigan Athletic over the summer.
The 24-year-old played a key part in Wigan’s revival last season and looked set to challenge for a place in the Baggies defence during their 2020/21 campaign. However, he has made just two EFL Cup appearances this term and West Brom boss Slaven Bilic even admitted last month that he could leave on loan in January.
“January isn’t that far,” the Croatian said in November (via Express and Star). “I spoke to him a week ago, let’s say, and January is only in a couple of months.”
A look at his performances for Wigan makes this decision by Bilic appear a strange one though, with the Frenchman actually bettering West Brom defenders Semi Ajayi and Kyle Bartley in a number of key statistics in the Championship last season.
According to WhoScored, Kipre completed more tackles, 1.4, and interceptions, 1.6, per game on average than both Ajayi and Bartley. He also played an opponent offside 0.7 times per game and was dribbled past just 0.1 times per match, again bettering both of the Baggies players.
Kipre achieved this while playing in a struggling Wigan side that finished 13th, after battling relegation for much of the season. Despite their struggles, they finished the season with the ninth-best defence in the division, with 56 goals conceded from their 46 matches.
Bartley and Ajayi both had a higher passing accuracy than Kipre, but that was playing in a West Brom side that averaged 53.6% possession last season, the fifth-best record in the league. The Frenchman completed 79.2% of his passes, compared to 83.% and 81.6% by Bartley and Ajayi respectively, but was also expected to play more long balls than the Baggies pair, averaging 3.2 per game (via WhoScored).
Counting stats are not always overly instructive for defenders, but what they show is that Kipre was performing on a very similar level to Ajayi and Bartley last season in the same division while playing for a worse team. Given that the Baggies have struggled defensively this season, with a league-worst 23 goals conceded, it is very strange that he has not been given the opportunity to play.
In other West Brom news, are the Baggies about to make a big mistake over Bilic?
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