Exclusive: Kevin Phillips claims Bilic signings failed to take West Brom opportunities
We’re delighted to welcome former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns…
Kevin Phillips claims Slaven Bilic’s summer signings have struggled to adapt to life in the Premier League after helping West Brom win promotion.
Albion spent a lot of time and money on rebuilding the squad that got promoted last term with Bilic and Luke Dowling overseeing permanent deals for loanees Matheus Pereira, Grady Diangana and Callum Robinson while Filip Krovinovic was re-signed on loan.
Cedric Kipre, David Button, Conor Gallagher, Branislav Ivanovic and Karlan Grant were the only new faces brought in during the summer. However, all but Pereira started for West Brom in their last match against Newcastle at the weekend with Sam Allardyce clearly not fancying those brought in by his predecessor.
Robert Snodgrass, Mbaye Diagne, Okay Yokuslu and Ainsley Maitland-Niles were all brought in during the winter transfer window and all but Snodgrass, who’s been recovering from an injury, started in the 0-0 versus Newcastle on Sunday.
With Big Sam in charge, his new signings playing and Bilic’s signings being overlooked, West Brom’s form has improved a bit.
Ex-West Brom striker Phillips claims that while Allardyce’s changes have yielded an improvement, he has slammed the failure to sign defensive reinforcements in the winter window.
“Sam had to do something when he came in, he had to bring people in,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“At the time, we all thought they would do well in the Premier League, obviously the Dianganas, the Robinsons and the Pereiras. It just shows you how tough the jump up is.
“Sam had to bring in someone who could make a contribution now and I think Yokuslu is fitting in quite well and Diagne is a handful. They’ve made a slight impression and slight improvement.
“These other lads, they have been given opportunities but they haven’t taken them. That’s why they are where they are.
“I know you need to score goals but ultimately what’s going to relegate them is that they’ve conceded too many goals and too many sloppy goals.
“It’s an area they should have looked at when Sam came in and they didn’t. It’s going to cost them.”
West Brom might not have added any defenders to their squad in the last window but Yokuslu’s arrival from Celta Vigo has helped massively at the back.
Before Big Sam’s arrival, Albion’s midfield was woeful.
Jake Livermore and Romaine Sawyers have simply failed to look like Premier League footballers and offered next to zero protection to the backline.
Overall this season, centre-backs Semi Ajayi, Dara O’Shea and Kyle Bartley haven’t been terrible despite the glut of goals being conceded. The issues have lay ahead of them in the midfield.
Yokuslu’s been a superb signing and has really helped steady the ship. The stupid thing is that it was so obvious in the summer that we needed a holding midfielder because Sawyers was barely good enough in the Championship.
In other West Brom news, Lee Dixon slammed this one “terrible” player in the 0-0 draw with Newcastle.
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