Kevin Phillips predicts how West Brom will fare in Championship if Big Sam stays
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…
West Brom fans seem to be becoming more comfortable with the idea of Sam Allardyce staying at The Hawthorns if the Albion are relegated this season.
Allardyce, 66, was appointed as Baggies manager in December, signing a contract that runs until the end of next season.
While the ex-England manager suffered a rocky start to life at The Hawthorns, form has steadily improved and since the January transfer window closed, the Black Country club has lost just three of seven matches and have conceded a maximum of two goals in a game.
Bringing in some of his own signings in the winter has led to a major improvement but, unfortunately, it seems to be too little too late for the Baggies, who are still 19th in the Premier League and eight points away from safety with a ridiculously bad goal difference.
In an exclusive interview with West Brom News, Kevin Phillips seemed positive about the idea of Allardyce staying in charge at The Hawthorns if the team is relegated this season.
The ex-West Brom striker doesn’t expect a thrilling style of play but he does believe Big Sam will be able to get results.
“All I would say is, don’t expect to see free-flowing, silky football, which is what fans have been used to when they’ve come back up from the Championship like they saw last season when they played some fantastic stuff under Slaven Bilic,” Phillips said.
“I can understand why fans would want Allardyce. At the end of the day, it’s just about getting back out of that league. You’ve seen it with Norwich this year, they kept Daniel Farke and it looks as though they’re going to romp to the title.
“They haven’t changed their style but I think the style Sam will bring will see them play football but defensively, they will be very solid and build from that. Hopefully, that can give the attacking players a license to play.
“I can see why the supporters would want to keep him because he has got a history of winning promotion. But, just don’t expect it to be pretty, free-flowing football. Although, at times, I have seen Big Sam teams play some really exciting football.”
West Brom have scored a lot of goals in their last two seasons in the Championship.
Only Brentford outscored them last term while in 2018/19, Norwich were the only team to beat Albion’s 87-goal haul in 46 matches.
Scoring goals hasn’t been an issue for a team that has boasted Dwight Gayle, Harvey Barnes, Jay Rodriguez, Matheus Pereira and Charlie Austin in their last two Championship campaigns and if Big Sam is able to add some more quality to the attack, he should be able to let them do their own thing.
Since arriving in December, Allardyce has slowly but surely improved West Brom’s defence and that is something that needs to continue being built upon in the summer, whether we stay up or not.
He could be a great choice of manager in the Championship but keeping faith in the former West Ham and Newcastle boss is unlikely to go down well with sections of the support.
In other West Brom news, John Percy has shared a major transfer update on the Baggies.
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