Sky Sports pundit slams ‘terrible’ Michael Rose in West Brom v Stoke City
Courtney Sweetman-Kirk slammed Stoke defender Michael Rose for his “terrible” defending the build-up to Brandon Thomas-Asante’s goal for West Brom on Sunday.
Rose was trying to see the ball out of play at the byline but Darnell Furlong managed to outmuscle the Scottish defender before it went out of play and get the ball into the box for Thomas-Asante to eventually score after a blocked shot by Okay Yokuslu fell back to him.
At half-time, former Leicester Women forward Sweetman-Kirk blasted Rose’s role in the goal but paid credit to both Furlong and Thomas-Asante.
Speaking on Sky Sports Football at 12:56pm on Sunday 17 December, Sweetman-Kirk said: “That’s terrible defending.
“I think a lot of the time, defenders get away with that but it’s good work by Furlong and the finish from Thomas-Asante is brilliant because it’s so difficult.
“You can see here he’s moving backwards so his momentum is going the opposite way from goal.”
Incredible work
Yes, it’s poor defending from Rose but you cannot take away from Furlong that he showed incredible determination to keep the ball alive.
Ultimately, Furlong’s tenacity got Albion a goal because he managed to get the ball into the box and it ended up falling to Thomas-Asante, who deserves a lot of credit as well.
He took that goal incredibly well.
It’s a wonder as to why he doesn’t score more because we’ve seen some outrageous finishes from the ex-Salford attacker during his time at The Hawthorns.
The technique and the power required to pull off a goal like that is amazing but then later on, we saw Thomas-Asante pretty much through on goal with three Stoke defenders chasing him. Instead of continuing into the box, he dragged the ball back from reason and dead-ended his run towards the box.
It’s decision-making that lets him down. Tony Brown said on BBC Radio WM that he needs to be more selfish and based on goals like this one against Stoke, Thomas-Asante wouldn’t be blamed for taking the Albion legend’s advice on board.
In other West Brom news, Andy Hinchcliffe was wowed by this “outstanding” Albion player against Stoke.