Karlan Grant and Grady Diangana give Allardyce food for thought
West Brom pair Karlan Grant and Grady Diangana impressed for Albion in a friendly against Huddersfield Town on Friday.
The match at The Hawthorns ended 3-0 in our favour for once and a number of fringe players took to the field.
Lee Peltier, Romaine Sawyers and Branislav Ivanovic were also involved as Sam Allardyce sought to give a run out to his back-up players.
Big Sam has stuck with the same starting line-up for four consecutive league games so this was a chance for squad players to impress.
Grant and Diangana took advantage with both scoring well-taken goals to play their way into Allardyce’s plans.
Both have been confined to the bench since Big Sam came in, though Diangana has of course spent several weeks out injured.
But against Huddersfield he made a good case for a starting role.
We have looked poor in the wide positions of late with Matt Phillips struggling to impact matches and Robert Snodgrass also dropped in favour of Matheus Pereira.
None of that trio can match Diangana’s skill on the ball or his pace when running with the ball.
In the Championship last season Diangana managed 2.4 dribbles per game to Phillips’ 0.7 and Pereira’s 1.5, per WhoScored.
With only nine Premier League games remaining £18million Diangana is running out of time to prove his quality at this level.
However, if he performs well over the next few games he could confirm a place in the side ahead of next season, which is likely to be spent in the Championship.
Grant too has struggled with the step-up but produced an instinctive finish against his former team.
Getting the £15million star back to his best would be a huge boost and we are keen to see how he fairs alongside Mbaye Diagne in attack.
He scored 19 Championship goals last term so there is clearly talent there, we just need to play his strengths.
Big Sam will take notice of the duo and their determination to impress – and that might mean the team looks a little different after the international break.
In other West Brom news, Luke Dowling let the Baggies down by not moving for a key Slaven Bilic target in 2020.
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