Five West Brom players ruled out of clash v Aston Villa – BBC Sport
West Brom will be without five first-team players for Sam Allardyce’s first match in charge against Aston Villa on Sunday.
According to BBC Sport, Conor Townsend, Hal Robson-Kanu, Kyle Bartley and Sam Field are all injured while Matheus Pereira is suspended for the West Midlands derby showdown at The Hawthorns.
Pereira, 24, is serving the third and final match of the controversial suspension he picked up when Albion lost 5-1 to Crystal Palace earlier this month.
As for Aston Villa’s team news, Trezeguet will miss the match but Ross Barkley and Ezri Konsa could return from their respective injury issues. Douglas Luiz and Matty Cash are also available after returning from suspension.
How key will Pereira be for Allardyce?
Big Sam is one of those managers who does exactly what it says on the tin. He’ll make West Brom hard to beat and really place emphasis upon improving the club’s defence.
But where does that leave creative dynamos like Pereira?
Just because Allardyce is viewed as a defensive-minded manager, doesn’t mean he doesn’t like to have players who can provide an attacking spark to his side.
Jay-Jay Okocha is someone who sticks out to us straight away with the Nigerian proving himself to be one of the Premier League’s best attacking midfielders during Big Sam’s reign at Bolton.
Pereira could turn out to be Allardyce’s new Okocha as long as the Baggies have enough time on the ball for the Brazilian to be able to influence matches.
According to stats by WhoScored, no player has completed more key passes per appearance than Pereira this season [2.3] while only Grady Diangana [1.7] has averaged more dribbles [1.6]. Pereira also ranks second in the Albion squad for shots per game [1.7] and he’s almost the most-fouled [2.3].
If West Brom are going to stay up, Pereira will have to play a role and being without him against Villa this weekend is a massive blow for Allardyce in his first game in charge.
In other West Brom news, Jonathan Greening has blasted the club for sacking Bilic and has made a claim about Tony Pulis.
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