13% duels won – View: West Brom 29y/o lets Big Sam down with shocker v Sheffield Utd
West Brom forward Mbaye Diagne got his first Premier League start in the 2-1 defeat against Sheffield United on Tuesday.
After making an instant impact against Fulham off the bench, Baggies fans will have been relishing him from the start.
It didn’t quite work out that way though, as Billy Sharp and Jayden Bogle cancelled out Matt Phillips’ opening goal in South Yorkshire.
It is hard to judge someone after only two appearances, but Diagne was shocking at Bramall Lane, in such an important game.
The Senegalese international missed a shocker and was bullied for the entire 90 minutes by the likes of John Egan.
Diagne was only successful with 33% of his total attempted actions according to WyScout, and there were only 33, meaning 22 of his actions were failed.
Allardyce has made it clear that his hold up play will be vital, but we saw nothing to back up those claims last night.
The 29-year-old won only two of his 15 duels, shocking numbers. As well as that, he lost the ball seven times and only won 25% of his aerial battles.
Looking at this perfect example, Diagne had huge amounts of time and had numerous options to find in the middle of the park.
Diagne let Allardyce down, and this was the prime example.
The 29-year-old had four options to choose from, but instead, he took far too many touches and that allowed John Fleck to take the ball away from him.
Obviously, Diagne won’t be at full fitness yet having only arrived on Friday, and we may have to give him time to get used to the Premier League.
The only problem with that, is we don’t have that luxury, and he needs to start firing sooner rather than later – next up? Spurs.
In other West Brom news, this Baggies loanee wants permanent exit from The Hawthorns