Cascarino: West Brom would be below Sheffield United without Sam Johnstone
There won’t be many West Brom players emerging from this season with any credit but Sam Johnstone and Kyle Bartley have been standout stars.
That is according to former Aston Villa striker Tony Cascarino who has paid tribute to their significant contributions despite Albion teetering on the brink of relegation as they sit in 19th, eight points behind Brighton who occupy the final survival slot in the Premier League.
Speaking on talkSPORT’s GameDay Breakfast show [06:00, 13/03/21] Cascarino claims Sam Allardyce’s side would be in an even more perilous position without their goalkeeper.
“Some of the defending, especially by Bartley, has been heroic, it’s been fantastic, getting bodies in front of the ball, Sam Johnstone,” he said.
“Think about it, if Sam Johnstone had an average year West Brom would be below Sheffield United because he’s pulled off so many saves this season for them.
“The one thing you can say they have got is a real unity and effort to stop teams.”
Indispensable influences
We dread to think where we would be without our defensive rock and our safe pair of hands.
Standing out in this woeful West Brom side is perhaps not the hardest task in history but it would have been easy for the duo to shrink into the shadows like most of their teammates.
Instead they have stood up and made themselves counted.
Johnstone’s form has been such that he must be on the verge of an England call-up after a brilliant maiden Premier League campaign.
According to Wyscout the Albion stopper has been kept extremely busy this season, making more saves per 90 [4.16] than any other goalkeeper in the league.
He has prevented 0.93 goals, an impressive return considering the likes of Liverpool’s Alisson Becker is on minus figures [0.07].
Bartley, meanwhile, has shone in recent months to help form a more protective barrier between the opposition and Johnstone.
Three clean sheets in our last four is evidence of that but he has also weighed in at the other end.
Bartley scored an equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Fulham on January 30 before bagging the winner in a 1-0 victory over Brighton on February 27 to give us a glimmer of hope in our battle for survival.
Without our defensive stalwarts we would almost certainly be below Sheffield United and scraping to hit double digits for points.
In other West Brom news, Roy Hodgson hails Albion loanee as a ‘tremendous signing’.
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