Madeley – Big Sam must drop ‘overwhelmed’ player and risk collision course with new WBA signing
Athletic journalist Steve Madeley believes that West Brom have one hope left in a season that’s already looking doomed after a 2-1 loss to Sheffield United.
He said that “Okay Yokuslu and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are Allardyce’s final, desperate hope for a change of fortunes.”
Madeley thinks that Big Sam has to drop defender Dara O’Shea after a horrible performance against the Blades.
And he claims that Allardyce must risk a collision course with Maitland-Niles by playing him at right-back.
The Arsenal loanee wants to play in midfield and talks between Southampton and the player’s representatives broke down as they wanted to play him at right-back.
Writing in The Athletic, Madeley said, “Maitland-Niles covets a place in midfield but, after last night’s latest reverse in South Yorkshire, the temptation to play him at right-back — the position where parent club Arsenal see his future — must already be mounting even before he has trained with his team-mates for the first time.
“With Darnell Furlong dropped last night after his defensive vulnerability was exposed by Fulham, Dara O’Shea’s return to full-back went badly.
“The young Irishman is a career centre-back with just half a season of Championship football under his belt for whom the intensity of the Premier League appears to be overwhelming at present.
“O’Shea needs a breather to reflect on what he has learned so far and Maitland-Niles is his obvious saviour.”
Team before self
It’s team before self at the moment and if West Brom are best-served by Maitland-Niles playing at full-back then we hope that he doesn’t cause any ructions.
There’s no getting away from the fact that last night was a massive blow in our bid for survival.
We needed six points from the last two games and we got one. That’s a disaster in anyone’s book and losing after being ahead last night was particularly hard to take.
Maitland-Niles obviously feels strongly about playing in midfield. It was enough for him to lose a move to Southampton, which was Arsenal’s preferred destination for the player.
We have to hope that West Brom didn’t give him any guarantees about where he would be playing – we need him at right-back at the moment.
The next two games are looking awful on paper – Tottenham and then a trip to Old Trafford to play a Man United side who just put nine past Southampton.
However, any hopes of looking at the fixture list and hand-picking where we’re getting points from has gone now. Every game is a battle for survival.
In other West Brom news, reliable journalist shares when Okay Yokuslu will make debut
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