Sky Sports pundit predicts fascinating West Brom vs Hull City result as Carlos Corberan hit by injury crisis
David Prutton has predicted that West Brom and Hull City will play out a draw in what he expects to be a “fascinating” game.
The Albion finally arrested their winless run by beating Middlesbrough last weekend (25 February) on the strength of Daryl Dike’s brace, but still sit 11th in the Championship table after Coventry picked up a point against Peterborough on Tuesday (28 February).
The Tigers are six points and five places further back, having not won in their last four while scoring just a single goal in that time, but Prutton can’t separate the sides when Carlos Corberan takes his men to the MKM Stadium on Friday night (3 March) and has gone for a 1-1 draw.
Prutton said in his Sky Sports predictions column: “Hull are struggling for goals at the minute and that is holding back their push up the table. I’ll be intrigued to see what their approach is.
“West Brom took a big win over Middlesbrough. This should be a fascinating game.”
Rebuild
Corberan needs to find a way to put together another run of wins to get the Baggies back into the play-off hunt in earnest, having lost valuable ground during a three-game run where they picked up just a point.
That has not been boosted by a series of injuries at attacking positions with Brandon Thomas-Asante out alongside Karlan Grant, while Grady Diangana may have already played his last game of the season [Lewis Cox, via Twitter 2 March].
So it was incredibly timely for Dike to find some scoring form, with the American’s own time at The Hawthorns also wrecked by injury so far.
If he can stay fit and get on a personal run at the same time as the team then the club’s hopes of being in the play-off places when the time comes would be significantly boosted.
The improvement under Corberan since he replaced Steve Bruce seemed almost too good to be true for so long that it was bound to encounter some bumps in the road sooner or later, and they arrived with the disruption of the manager’s links to the Leeds United job, and now the injury crisis.
In addition captain Jake Livermore is ill, and Erik Pieters is a doubt, while Alex Palmer, Kyle Bartley and Matt Phillips all remain unavailable [Birmingham World, 2 March]
If he can mastermind his way through this difficult period then it will prove his contract extension is a huge coup for the club, and the Premier League may still be within reach.
In other West Brom news, a Baggies player posted an ecstatic message on social media after coming through difficulties.