Exclusive: Big Sam tipped to axe popular West Brom player for clash v Man City – pundit
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…
Conor Gallagher could be dropped to make way for Robert Snodgrass to start for West Brom against Manchester City on Tuesday night, according to Kevin Phillips.
Snodgrass, 33, sat out of the 2-1 defeat to West Ham last week due to a controversial agreement between the Baggies and the winger’s former club that is now being investigated by the Premier League.
Next up for Albion is a meeting with Pep Guardiola’s Man City at The Hawthorns and Phillips believes Snodgrass will be back in the side.
However, he believes the Scottish ace will return to Sam Allardyce’s starting line-up at the expense of popular loan star Gallagher.
“Big Sam, attacking wise, has got that option of playing Snodgrass and Gallagher together. Sawyers could make way or he could go more defensive with [Romaine] Sawyers and [Jake] Livermore sitting there or he could play 4-4-2,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“He’s got options but I’d imagine Snodgrass will come straight back in. He was in that winning side at Wolves.
“Gallagher could give way. I’m not going to pre-empt but I’ll imagine he will go with two sitting midfielders [versus Man City] to shore up and give the defence some more protection.
“For me, Gallagher might make way just for that game but I think moving forward, Allardyce will chop and change that.”
West Brom fans will probably want to see Sawyers or Livermore dropped from the starting line-up with neither of them really impressing in the Premier League this season.
Gallagher, 20, has been one of the stand-out West Brom players considering how badly the team has played this season with the on-loan Chelsea midfielder showing he can get stuck in up and down the pitch.
According to stats by Wyscout, Gallagher is involved in 10.48 defensive duels per 90 minutes of Premier League football this season which ranks him seventh in the top-flight and the highest in the Albion squad.
No player has been booked more times than Gallagher [6] either in the Premier League this season which just continues to show how much he loves to get in the faces of opposition players.
If Allardyce wants to play a defensive formation against Man City – which is very likely – then we can say goodbye to the 4-2-3-1 he played against Wolves and West Ham as it’s more likely to be a 4-5-1 with three central midfielders.
Snodgrass may well start out wide but it wouldn’t be a shock if Kamil Grosicki is left out, Matheus Pereira returns to the wing and Big Sam plays Gallagher, Sawyers and Livermore in the middle to protect the back-four.
In other West Brom news, there’s been a major Christian Benteke development after he was linked with a move to The Hawthorns.
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