Journalist stunned by Grady Diangana skill in West Brom clash v Millwall
Joe Chapman was left impressed by West Brom winger, Grady Diangana’s “sumptuous” piece of skill during the first half of the Baggies’ clash with Millwall.
Carlos Corberan’s side are looking to avoid making it four games without a win in the Championship as they welcomed the Lions to The Hawthorns on Saturday (23 September) and headed into the break level after Alex Palmer saved Zian Flemming’s penalty.
Diangana returned to the starting XI for the first time this season having recovered from surgery during the offseason and despite looking slightly rusty, the 25-year-old showed his immense quality on the ball.
Birmingham Live reporter Chapman took to Twitter (23 September) to say: “Diangana has started a bit scratchily, but that was some sumptuous touch-line skill just then to skip away from a couple of Millwall players.
“He switches play, Sarmiento progresses into the box but is unlucky when an attempted clearance ricochets off him and behind for a GK.”
Sumptuous
Anyone who has ever watched Diangana in a Baggies shirt knows that the attacking midfielder is capable of moments of magic on the ball that can be the difference between Albion winning and losing games and it was good to see him at his tricky best in the first half.
The 25-year-old draws defenders towards him constantly and as shown against Millwall, he is more than capable of finding a way to wriggle between any number of markers as they attempt to knick the ball off of him.
Corberan has challenged Diangana to find a level of consistency to ensure that he impacts matches every week of the Albion and although he showed his talent on the ball during the first half, he was part of an entire West Brom side that struggled to create much in terms of real goal scoring chances.
In defence, the former West Ham United man still needs to improve his output off of the ball to ensure he’s worth his place in Corberan’s starting XI every week, as Diangana lost the most duels of any player in the first half with three as he faced off with Murray Wallace and Ryan Longman.
In other West Brom news, Semi Ajayi demonstrated the Baggie defensive struggles with a poor performance against Watford