West Brom team news v Luton: Kyle Bartley back but Matt Phillips misses out
West Brom head to Kenilworth Road to take on Luton Town on Saturday desperate to end this awful run of results and goal drought in the Championship.
The Baggies have failed to score, and therefore win, in any of their last four games with Monday’s 0-0 draw with Blackburn Rovers arguably the best result of the barren spell given their lofty league position.
Steve Bruce confirmed to the media on Friday that defender Kyle Bartley is available again after a long illness but forward Matt Phillips is still out.
BBC Radio West Midlands Tweeted the news during Bruce’s press conference and also said that Daryl Dike is back in light training, aiming for a return after the March international break.
Absolute must win
There are no excuses now, West Brom simply have to start winning games of football if they have any ambition of making this season a successful one.
The attacking troubles were well publicised under Valerien Ismael but they haven’t improved one bit since Bruce took over earlier in February.
Admittedly, he has only been at the helm for two games but in neither of them have the Baggies looked threatening to the opposition and it is becoming a real worry.
It shouldn’t be the personnel that is the problem with Karlan Grant, Andy Carroll and others in the squad having very good goal-scoring records in the second tier.
It is tough to balance going for goals and being solid in defence and the latter tends to be focused on first but the lack of goals is now too much of an issue to ignore.
There is a long way to go to catch the playoff chasers and given the form of those sides, you can only see West Brom sliding further down the Championship table.
In other West Brom news, this pundit is fuming with the same issue as every other Baggies fan.