Sky Sports’ Adam Bate questions Mbaye Diagne contribution after ‘comical’ miss
West Brom striker Mbaye Diagne has been mocked for his miss against Leicester by Sky Sports journalist Adam Bates, who was providing punditry for the 3-0 defeat at the King Power on Thursday.
Thursday’s match got off to a quick start and Diagne missed a superb chance to open the scoring for West Brom.
Matheus Pereira showed brilliant composure and vision to find the striker in the box, but Diagne completely missed the ball in his attempt to shoot – it instead struck his standing foot.
An early goal could have changed the outcome of the match and Bates questioned Diagne’s contribution to the team because of that.
He said on Sky Sports’ live commentary, “That was just comical from Diagne.
“Disbelief as the ball hits his standing leg when all he had to do was make proper contact.
“Where might West Brom be if his finishing had been better this season?”
Letting the team down?
Diagne has been quite a difficult player to assess since he arrived in January.
On the one hand, he is better than our other strikers and results have improved with him in the side – his ability to act as a focal point who holds the ball up has helped with that.
However, a return of two goals in 12 games is scarcely better than our other forward options, and he has been guilty of missing some big chances.
Per Understat, the 29-year-old has an xG of 4.88, so he should perhaps have scored three more goals than he has.
Bates is right to suggest Diagne’s finishing has been poor, therefore, but there is no way of knowing if his extra goals would have put us in a better position.
The fact he could or should have five goals in 12 games still indicates a lack of service, so we have more than just one problem in the team.
In other West Brom news, Chris Sutton savaged a ‘sloppy’ West Brom player at full-time v Leicester.
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