Sky Sports host predicts scoreline of West Brom clash v Leeds United at Elland Road
David Prutton predicts West Brom to hold Leeds United to a draw when the two sides meet at Elland Road on Friday night.
Leeds are in complete disarray due to mounting injuries, players refusing to play and a lack of new signings to make up for the glut of exits since their relegation from the Premier League.
They’re yet to win in the Championship and Sky Sports EFL host Prutton expects that run to continue in West Yorkshire on 18 August, predicting the score to be 1-1.
“It is already not looking quite right at Leeds. Players are leaving, some may not want to be there, injuries are already mounting up and results haven’t been there yet,” Prutton said on the Sky Sports website on Thursday (17 August).
“West Brom got an important win over Swansea after losing at Blackburn on opening day. It is still early days to really see what their level is like this season, so I’ll go for a draw here.”
Big game
With so much going on at Leeds at the moment, it’s important to point out the deadly silence at West Brom right now.
Carlos Corberan has only signed two players, snapping up striker Josh Maja on a free transfer and landing Jeremy Sarmiento on loan from Brighton.
However, Dara O’Shea, Kean Bryan, Jake Livermore, Tom Rogic, Karlan Grant and David Button have all left The Hawthorns, meaning that the senior squad is considerably smaller now than it was at the end of last season.
In the 3-2 win over Swansea last week, Corberan was forced to name a number of youngsters on the bench while exit-linked players like Cedric Kipre and Nathaniel Chalobah had to play.
West Brom’s squad is awfully light, especially in the attack and in the defence, so you’d expect more signings to come in at the end of the transfer window.
However, due to Guochuan Lai’s rotten leadership (if you can call it that) at The Hawthorns, funds for transfers are in extremely short supply so we may see more Sarmiento-esque signings before the 11pm cut-off on 1 September.
Loan signings can work but West Brom’s recent track record shows there are way more misses than hits.
Either way, it won’t help us against Leeds on Friday night. Hopefully their behind-the-scenes issues translate onto the pitch and allow West Brom an easier chance of success at Elland Road.
In other West Brom news, “ridiculous” financial news at The Hawthorns has been blasted by an expert.