Brandon Thomas-Asante must lose starting place at West Brom after 0% performance v Leicester
Brandon Thomas-Asante should be stripped of his starting place at West Brom by Carlos Corberan after his embarrassing performance in the 2-1 defeat to Leicester.
Thomas-Asante has been the main number nine for West Brom so far this season as a result of injuries and circumstances, but his spell in the starting team may be over, having gone five games without a goal.
To make matters worse for the forward, Josh Maja came off the bench to score and reinforce his claim for a starting role, providing a fresh option for the boss to use up top.
Not only has he gone five games without a goal, but the one open-play goal he scored prior to the barren run is his only in his last 14 games, having started most of those as the main striker in Corberan’s system.
In the defeat to Leicester, we saw the culmination of that embarrassing run of form as he once again failed to find the back of the net, but it was compounded by a failure to win a single one of his aerial duels at a 0% success rate, as well as a 25% ground duel success rate. [Sofascore]
The striker lost possession 12 times, having only touched the ball 19 times, and only completed two passes despite playing the entire game. It was the peak of a number of terrible displays and should warrant his expulsion from the starting lineup.
Maja meanwhile came off the bench for a 15-minute cameo in which he found the back of the net, with a 100% shot conversion rate and completed 100% of his passes, making a meaningful contribution with each of his four touches after coming on. [Sofascore]
Normally you’d say Corberan has been handed a selection headache in choosing between his two strikers, but the form of Thomas-Asante coupled with Maja’s desire to impress and earn himself more regular minutes at The Hawthorns suggest the decision should not be a hard one to make.
In other West Brom news, a Sky Sports pundit has mocked one Baggies ace after what happened v Leicester.