Exclusive: Kevin Phillips raves about ‘old-fashioned’ West Brom ace Kyle Bartley
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 has hailed Kyle Bartley with the centre-back impressing at West Brom in recent weeks.
The 29-year-old was named in the WhoScored team of the month for February after a series of superb defensive performances on top of scoring the winner for the Baggies against Brighton.
According to stats by WhoScored, only Tyrone Mings [31] made more clearances than Bartley [29] in February and Phillips is pleased by what he’s seen from the former Swansea man.
“Bartley’s had to step up because he’s had to do much defending,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“He’s almost like an old-fashioned centre-half, he puts his body on the line, he defends his box with his life, he’s a leader and that’s why he’s the captain.
“He’s stepped up and so has Sam Johnstone. When you need your experienced players, they step up and Kyle’s done that.
“He’s been tested this season, he’s had his fair share of defending to do.”
Bartley found himself in and out of the West Brom starting line-up earlier in the season when Slaven Bilic was in charge.
He started eight of the 11 Premier League matches he was available for when Bilic was at The Hawthorns and after missing almost all of December through injury, had to fight his way into Sam Allardyce’s starting line-up.
Albion have conceded 2.4 goals per league game when Bartley hasn’t started this season. When he has started, they’ve conceded 1.7 times per top-flight fixture.
West Brom are clearly a better defensive unit when Bartley starts while the defender is also a danger at set-pieces for opposition teams. Only Matheus Pereira [6] has scored more goals than Bartley [3] in all competitions this season.
In other West Brom news, Albion have signed a new defender, the player’s agent has confirmed.
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