Don Goodman wants West Brom to sign ‘predatory striker’ after what he saw v Leicester City
Don Goodman says there is “no doubt” West Brom could do with an out-and-out striker in the summer, regardless of what league they are in.
Albion, not helped by injuries to Daryl Dike and Josh Maja, have had to mainly rely on Brandon Thomas-Asante to lead their attack this season.
Thomas-Asante has scored a respectable 11 goals, but his absence against Leicester City last time out through suspension was felt.
With Jed Wallace leading the attack, Albion missed a number of chances and were on the end of a 2-1 loss at King Power Stadium.
Given the injury issues and lack of other options, Goodman believes it is an area Carlos Corberan’s men should be looking to strengthen.
“Regardless of what happened last weekend in terms of them missing a whole host of chances, the irony is I don’t think any of the chances fell to Jed Wallace, the false nine,” Goodman told West Brom News.
“Instead, they fell to the wide players in particular, so it wasn’t a case of the central strikers missing a chance. They’ve been unfortunate with the Daryl Dike and Josh Maja injuries.
“But there’s no doubt about it – adding some sort of predatory striker to that team would definitely help them because they do create chances.
“I just think there were so many positives at the weekend and the one negative was they missed lots of chances. They outplayed arguably the best team in the league on their own patch and didn’t deserve to lose.
“Having said all that, I don’t see them having a problem getting in the top six. If they can then produce these performance levels in the play-offs, it’s not going to be fun to play against.”
Brandon Thomas-Asante’s goals return for West Brom
Thomas-Asante has been a very good servant for West Brom and has done a solid job this season. However, a return of 0.38 goals per 90 minutes [FBref] is not what you would expect from a player featuring regularly for a top-six side.
As Goodman points out, the workload was meant to be spread out this season but Dike has just been desperately unlucky with yet another long-term lay-off, while Maja has played just 184 minutes of action this campaign.
If those two can get fit and stay fit then Corberan has some good options to rotate between next season, but that is easier said than done and, unfortunately, is not a risk the club can take.
That is not even to mention if the Baggies are promoted next month, in which case another striker will undoubtedly have to be signed.
For now, Thomas-Asante will continue to play his part now he is back from suspension and can hopefully add a few more goals to his tally before the campaign concludes.
In other West Brom news, Goodman has made a new top-six prediction regarding the Baggies following the loss to Leicester.
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