View: Time to go – City shocker shows sloppy player is dragging West Brom down with him
Romaine Sawyers may have had credit in the bank as a boyhood Albion fan but that has quickly evaporated as the West Brom midfielder continues to falter in the Premier League.
The season as a whole was encapsulated in the first half against Manchester City on Tuesday evening.
Albion were lethargic and lacked any real determination and hunger for the fight.
Granted, the fixture pitted them against Pep Guardiola’s star-studded side who had won their last 11 games on the bounce and were without defeat since a 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on November 21.
Even the most ardent Albion supporter was not expecting a positive result but they would have expected to see some grit and guts like they saw in the reverse fixture between the sides when they drew 1-1 in Slaven Bilic’s last game as Baggies boss.
However the fight on display there was completely non-existent at The Hawthorns on Tuesday and this was best shown in the performance of Sawyers.
The attitude displayed from the 29-year-old was unforgivable.
Take this example below for Manchester City’s second goal.
Here, Cancelo receives the ball in acres of space on the edge of the box with Sawyers the nearest Albion player to him.
One would think that he would be doing his all to try and block the incoming effort, however Sawyers still has his back turned and hand raised at the assistant referee who has her flag up.
This might have been off-putting but one of the absolute basics in football is that the play continues until the whistle and Sawyer’s blatant disregard to assume his responsibilities is shocking from a player with his experience.
Cancelo then manages to nonchalantly place the ball into the far corner after being given the freedom of The Hawthorns, and it does not get any better for City’s third goal ten minutes later.
In the image above you can see the ball coming to Sawyers’ chest. With clear space in front of him one would think a player who is expected to have a bit of vision in his play would see this and position his body into a positive body shape to turn out from the situation.
Unfortunately he does the exact opposite and even takes a second touch with his chest towards his own goal which is seized upon by Ilkay Gundogan.
The City midfielder showed the difference in quality levels last night and this was perhaps the clearest example.
He steals the ball from the Albion man and then shoots to bring up three for City on the half hour mark.
Sawyers is left dumb-struck and is unable, or unwilling, to react in time to help prevent the goal.
These two examples were typical of his lazy display last night.
The stats were reflective of this with WhoScored giving him a 4.7 rating making him the lowest-rated performer on the field.
He was dribbled past three times (no player topped this), won only 40% of his tackles (2/5) and was dispossessed twice, including that example shown above.
Sawyers will always be tidy in possession with his 90.3% pass accuracy the highest in the Albion side last night but he actually does very little with the ball.
He does not dictate play while he has no effect going forwards with no key passes recorded.
Given that he also made no interceptions or blocked any shots he is having absolutely no effect in any third of the pitch.
West Brom might be short on numbers in the middle of midfield but surely there can be no one who offers less to the team than Sawyers.
Conor Gallagher was sat on the bench last night and even as a naturally more offensive player would give so much more in that position than his team-mate.
Time is ticking in the January transfer window and Big Sam will be desperate to bring in new recruits.
On the evidence of last night there can be no question that his most important signing will be the one to finally oust Sawyers from the side.
In other West Brom news, striker set for medical after loan-to-buy terms agreed.
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