Ainsley Maitland-Niles almost cost West Brom win over Brighton
West Brom earned a crucial win over Brighton on Saturday but they were very fortunate in doing so.
Kyle Bartley gave us an early lead but we easily could have lost if the visitors had shown just a tiny bit of composure in front of goal.
Some questionable refereeing also gave us a big helping hand.
However, all of these factors would have been irrelevant if Ainsley Maitland-Niles had performed to the standard we expect of him.
The midfielder was shocking in comparison to his previous performances.
He was presented with a glorious opportunity when Mbaye Diagne teed him up to go one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but he fired his shot straight at Robert Sanchez.
That came right on half-time when a second goal would have really put us in the ascendency and changed the dynamic of the match.
It was precarious watching for the second half because of that and had Danny Welbeck tucked away his penalty we would have rued Maitland-Niles’ miss.
That was not the only negative from his display, unfortunately.
The £35,000 a week [Spotrac] man was sloppy in possession and gave the ball away 17 times [SofaScore].
Fellow midfielder Okay Yokuslu lost the ball just three times, by comparison.
Defensively the 23-year-old left a lot to be desired also, as he won just four out of 13 duels – meaning he lost 70%.
We could not afford that against a Brighton side that play with a fluid style and like to knock the ball around.
It helped to contribute to Brighton’s 70% possession and the 15 shots they produced as a result.
Maitland-Niles can thank Sam Johnstone’s six saves and some wayward finishing for getting us out of trouble.
Worse still, the Arsenal loanee carried little attacking threat.
Completing two out of the seven dribbles he attempted is simply not good enough given our position in the table.
Combine that with zero key passes and it is understandable that Maitland-Niles picked up a SofaScore rating of 5.9.
That sorry return was the worst of any Albion player, and we were fortunate to come away with all three points as a result.
In other West Brom news, I spoke to FIFA about it – Gary Lineker demands big change after West Brom win v Brighton.