Andy Hinchcliffe blasts Grady Diangana live on Sky Sports after what he did in 2-1 West Brom defeat v Sunderland
Sky Sports pundit Andy Hinchcliffe slammed West Brom attacker Grady Diangana after giving away a “needless” foul which nearly led to a Sunderland goal.
The Baggies were looking to cement their place in the Sky Bet Championship top six when they travelled to Wearside to take on a managerless Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon (9 December).
And deep into the second half, Diangana gave away a cheap foul on the edge of Sunderland’s penalty area for a free-kick which nearly led to the opener for the Black Cats.
And Hinchcliffe speaking live on Sky Sports’ live coverage of the game on commentary (9 December, 13:03) blasted the Albion star after his strange challenge on Jack Clarke, saying: “That’s poor from Diangana.
“Jack Clarke is trying to get to the ball and goes with his left foot. If you’re gonna challenge here and try and genuinely win the ball, you’ve got to go with your right foot, he goes with his left.
“It’s a pointless and needless challenge in a dangerous area, he’s lucky he’s not given a penalty.”
Lucky
Diangana’s comical challenge on Clarke shows why managers sometimes want their best-attacking talents not to defend their own 18-yard box and that was shown through the DR Congo international.
It was a silly one from the former West Ham United man, as he tried to nick the ball away from Clarke but tackled him with the wrong foot and had that been a yard or two more advanced, he could well have conceded a needless penalty to the Black Cats.
The Baggies could count themselves incredibly fortunate not to be behind at that point when the linesman made a bad controversial call on a Jobe Bellingham goal after Alex Palmer’s mistakes.
How the referee did not see that Bellingham was behind Cedric Kipre who was clearly playing him onside is absolutely baffling, for such an experienced linesman too.
While the Baggies will count themselves very fortunate for that one, Diangana can also count himself lucky that the free-kick he gave away did not lead to a goal. It seems luck really is on the Albion’s side.
In other West Brom news, Guochuan Lai appears to be very close to an exit from the Hawthorns amid a recent development involving a prospective takeover.