View: Mbaye Diagne can aerially exploit Ben White in West Brom v Brighton
Ben White has been heralded as a future star but the Brighton defender is struggling in a key aspect of his game that West Brom can exploit on Saturday.
The 23-year-old shone on loan at Leeds United last season as the Whites romped to the Championship title in emphatic fashion and his form was such that the Seagulls refused to sell him and immediately set about finding a space in their starting XI for him.
He has flitted between defence and midfield and has generally been a solid performer in his first full season in the Premier League, but there are issues in his and Brighton’s game that have started creeping up.
According to Wyscout Brighton have an aerial duel success rate of 46.7% this season, but they have suffered a big downturn in form of late.
Their last four games have seen them fail to break the 37% mark and they were significantly outperformed in this area against Crystal Palace on Monday (35.29% v 64.71%).
It looks like there is a clear player for the Baggies to target.
Dan Burn won 83% of his aerial duels and Lewis Dunk was successful with his only attempt, but Ben White won zero of his six efforts.
He has now failed to win an aerial duel in five of his last eight games, a pretty shocking return for a centre-back who has also stepped into midfield on a couple of occasions in that run.
Brighton are also suffering in their overall defensive game, with the three games prior to the Palace game seeing them massively underperform their season average 60% success rate in defensive duels (46% v Aston Villa, 51% v Leicester and 48% v Burnley).
Only four sides (Sheffield United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Southampton) have a worse success rate than Brighton’s 45.5% in the Premier League this season and it is a clear target for Albion to target on Saturday.
West Brom are no strangers to playing the match above head height with a total of 41.02 aerial duels per 90, beaten only by Burnley and Sheffield United.
Mbaye Diagne was involved in a mammoth 16 aerial duels against Burnley but won only 25% of these.
However he only needs to win one in the penalty area to grab a goal and make life difficult for a Brighton side that have only scored two in their last four games.
If Albion can Matheus Pereira on the ball in dangerous areas he has the quality to whip in deliveries for Diagne to make the most of.
Big Sam will be telling his players to prey on the aerial deficiencies of White at The Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon.
In other West Brom news, Mark Lawrenson predicts the score in Albion v Brighton clash.
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