West Brom miss Romaine Sawyers
Saturday saw Romaine Sawyers score his first goal for a very long time for Stoke City after leaving West Brom in the summer.
The former Brentford midfielder is on a season-long loan from the Hawthorns to the Potters, and there is cause to say the Baggies are missing him.
Valerien Ismael only really has three central midfielders to choose from in Jake Livermore, Alex Mowatt, and Jayson Molumby.
Now, on Saturday, the Baggies didn’t have Livermore or Mowatt available, which meant that Robert Snodgrass had to play in the centre of midfield.
Now, it didn’t really matter this weekend as the Baggies were too good for Bristol City, and they ran out 3-0 winners.
However, against a better opponent, you would think that the duo could struggle further down the line.
Sawyers’ goal was a fine left-footed strike that reminded the Baggies of what he could do in the Championship [Stoke City’s website].
Since moving to the Potters, he has made nine appearances in which he has scored once and provided one assist as well as averaging 0.8 key passes per game [WhoScored].
Remember, he has also been described as “brilliant” by Slaven Bilic in the past [Express & Star].
Now, Sawyers could be the ideal partner for Mowatt in the middle rather than Livermore moving forward given his passing ability.
This season, the Baggies captain has already picked up five yellow cards and looked slow and ponderous in some games.
Sawyers has the ability to glide through midfield, and a partnership of him and Mowatt would arguably be one of the league’s best.
Of course, the Baggies have done well without Sawyers, but they might regret letting him move to Stoke on loan by the end of the season.
In other West Brom news, Kevin Phillips has been blown away by the recent form of one Baggies player.