View: West Brom defender produced horror show with several mistakes v Newcastle
Branislav Ivanovic had an afternoon to forget as West Brom lost 2-1 to Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon.
The experienced defender made a number of mistakes including losing the ball just a few seconds into the first half which allowed the Magpies to take a very early lead.
Albion struck back through Darnell Furlong but a late Dwight Gayle header saw all three points remain at St James’ Park.
Ivanovic showed an astonishing lack of experience despite his years as a Premier League winning defender and his mistakes cost the Baggies dearly.
Just after kick-off, the ball was sent high towards Ivanovic and somehow the 36-year-old managed to make such a hash of his attempted clearance that Newcastle were ahead just moments later.
Above, you can see how the defender got everything wrong when he tried to clear the ball despite being under little pressure from Joelinton.
He is then on the floor and unable to defend as the Brazilian picks up the ball and drives Newcastle forward.
This wasn’t the only time during the game that Ivanovic made a careless error but luckily his second mistake didn’t lead to another goal.
Later in the first half, Matt Ritchie takes a quick free kick aimed towards Joelinton.
The Newcastle forward drives towards goal and Ivanovic initially does well to keep the Brazilian wide of Sam Johnstone’s goal.
But Joelinton then looks as if he is about to shoot and the Serbian dives in unnecessarily and presents the Newcastle man with the perfect opportunity to score.
Luckily, Joelinton shoots straight at Johnstone but if he had squared the ball to either Sean Longstaff or Callum Wilson the Baggies may very well have been 2-0 down.
It was a very amateurish decision for Ivanovic to make as, if Joelinton is going to shoot from that tight angle, the effort is unlikely to challenge Johnstone.
His rash decision would’ve surely resulted in another opposition goal if a more competent attacker than Joelinton was in possession of the ball.
Ivanovic also had a poor game generally as, according to Wyscout, he only won 57% of his defensive duels while winning none of his attempted slide tackles and none of his two aerial duels.
The former Chelsea man was brought to The Hawthorns to provide experience to a backline that was without top flight minutes.
This attempt to strengthen the defence utterly failed against Newcastle and many Baggies fans must be wondering why Ivanovic was signed in the first place.
In other West Brom news, fans tore this player to shreds for his performance against Newcastle.
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