Ryan Mason by the numbers – Data shows how West Brom lead Championship, but also massively underperform
West Brom have had three permanent managers within the last 12 months.
Carlos Corberan brought relative stability to West Brom throughout a rocky period off the field, but he was always too talented for the Championship and it wasn’t a great shock that he swapped the Black Country for his boyhood club Valencia last Christmas.
Tony Mowbray then replaced Corberan to embark on his second stint in charge at The Hawthorns.
However, a rot had already started to set in under Corberan, and despite excitement about the handbrake being taken off, Mowbray only managed to oversee a slump down the Championship table, resulting with him being dismissed after just three months in charge.
Ryan Mason left his coaching role at Tottenham to join West Brom in the summer and has since had a mixed start to life in the Championship.
Nine games in – do West Brom look set for play-off battle?
Mason’s West Brom have pretty much picked up where Corberan and Mowbray left off in terms of league position.
In the three seasons Corberan had as Baggies boss, the Black Country club finished ninth, fifth and ninth again, with Mowbray being responsible for large parts of the latter and Steve Bruce for large parts of the former.
Albion are now seventh after nine games: four wins, two draws and three defeats, the latest of which came on Saturday when they were brushed aside 3-0 by Millwall at The Den.
It suggests that the Baggies are on course for yet another play-off challenge.
However, all three losses have come in their last five games, in which they have only won four points.
Such dire form right now suggests that a slide down the table is inevitable unless Mason can figure out a way to turn things around during the international break before West Brom return to action against Preston at The Hawthorns next Saturday.
- West Brom are 21st in the Championship form table for the last five games
- Sheffield United (3) and Norwich (2) are the only teams to pick up fewer points than Albion (4) in that period
- Only Sheffield United (2), who are currently bottom of the Championship, have scored fewer goals than West Brom (3) in their last five outings
- West Brom’s away form is the second best in the league, with three wins and nine points from five games. Coventry have 11 points from their five games on the road.
West Brom’s performance against Millwall at the weekend has been described by some fans as one of the worst they’ve seen.
And rightly so.
According to stats by Sofascore, West Brom failed to create any big chances and had just 22 touches in the Millwall box despite dominating the play with 61 per cent possession and an incredible tally of 497 passes.
Unfortunately, that result in South-East London was coming, and it just about sums up how West Brom have performed this season under Mason.
What’s happened to West Brom’s attack?
It’s pretty clear that Mason isn’t getting as good a tune out of West Brom’s attack as Corberan and Mowbray did last season, despite Corberan being known for his pragmatic, defence-first style of play.
In the nine Championship games he’s managed for the Albion, Mason has seen his side generate an xG (expected goals) of 1.35 per game.
This is actually an improvement on last season’s figure of 1.29 per game.
However, despite that, stats by Sofascore show that West Brom are scoring fewer goals, creating fewer big chances and having fewer shots at goal than they did last season.
West Brom spent £4.75million on signing Norway striker Aune Heggebo from Brann in the summer transfer window to try and fix their problems in front of goal.
Heggebo has started all but one of West Brom’s Championship games this season but scored just once in those matches, which came in the 2-1 defeat at Middlesbrough on 19 September.
Josh Maja has slowly returned to the side following his injury issues, scoring in his only start of the season in the 1-0 win at Norwich on 1 October.
It’d be unfair to pinpoint West Brom’s goal-shyness on Heggebo’s slow adaptation to English football or Maja’s lack of match fitness.
However, the increased xG from last season suggests that chances are being created more often and that is largely down to the pass-heavy style of play Mason has employed.
West Brom lead the Championship in passes per game – but what’s the point?
Albion fans are probably surprised to see that no club in the Championship completes as many accurate passes as they do per game.
West Brom rank eighth in the second tier for average possession (52.8%), but have reached dizzying heights in their ability for players to find their teammates with the ball at their feet.
Mason’s men rank above Leicester (410) and Southampton (408) for accurate passes per Championship game, even though their sides are stacked with quality after recently being established Premier League clubs and only being relegated last season.
But what’s the point in having so much possession and making so many passes if you’re not scoring goals?
And that’s West Brom’s big issue.
Mason’s defence looks quite sturdy.
Nat Phillips has been a great signing and George Campbell looks as though he’s coming on well, with Josh Griffiths in goals showing what he’s capable of in that 1-0 win over Norwich.
They’re going to have their off-days, like they did at Millwall. But the issue is that even if the defence is working at their peak ability, the failure to create and score goals is what’s holding the Baggies back.
Isaac Price (18) and Mikey Johnston (14) both rank in the top 13 in the Championship for key passes.
However, out of their key passes, Johnston has only created three big chances. More worryingly, despite ranking fifth in the league for key passes, Price has only set up one big chance.
While the defence isn’t perfect, it’s still probably Albion’s best-performing unit.
That’s probably helped by the sheer amount of ball possession they have (if they don’t have the ball, they can’t score), but at the same time, Mason and his squad have to be a lot more productive when they are in control of the game.
Whether that’s giving Maja more opportunities to start after the international break, starting Maja alongside Heggebo or employing more of a direct style, that’s up to Mason to decide to try and fix those issues.
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