I truly believe Aune Heggebo can still be a hit for West Brom after what I’ve seen him do
Let’s face it, Aune Heggebo hasn’t started as well as we hoped.
West Brom signed Heggebo from Brann in the summer transfer window for around £4.75million, but so far, the Norwegian striker has only scored twice in 10 appearances across all competitions.
Heggebo’s first West Brom goal came against Derby in the Carabao Cup before he doubled his tally in blue and white stripes against Middlesbrough in the Championship.
Neither time Heggebo has scored for the Baggies has he been able to celebrate at the end of the game, with both of those fixtures ultimately ending in defeat.
Josh Maja returns to scoresheet to pile further misery on Aune Heggebo
I’ve heard and seen a lot of calls for Heggebo to be dropped now that Josh Maja is close to returning to full match fitness.
Maja enjoyed a brilliant start to last season, with a stunning hat-trick against QPR on the opening day in a streak that saw him score seven times in seven Championship matches.
However, his goals dried up, as did West Brom’s wins under Carlos Corberan and shortly after the Spaniard left The Hawthorns for Valencia (I’ll never forgive him for ruining that Christmas), Maja suffered a season-ending injury.
- Maja finished last season with 12 goals in 26 Championship appearances
- Only six players outscored him in the second tier in 2024-25
- Stats by Sofascore show Maja averaged a goal every 0.46 matches, ranking him second in the division behind Norwich’s Josh Sargent (0.47)
Maja’s back among the goals now, bagging the winner against Norwich in what was his only Championship start of the campaign last week.
He was instantly on the bench again a few days later against Millwall as Albion turned in one of their worst performances in a while, as they lost 3-0.
Heggebo started up front in that game and, to me, he looked utterly lost.
What’s the matter with Aunge Heggebo?
I’ve already crunched the numbers this week to show how badly West Brom are underperforming in the attack.
Heggebo is, unfortunately, part of that problem, with the Norway international badly down on his xG.
According to stats by Sofascore, Heggebo has an xG of 2.4 in the Championship this term, despite only scoring once.
Despite West Brom completing more accurate passes per game than any other club in the league, Heggebo ranks all the way down in 18th for xG in the league.
Even more annoyingly for us Albion fans, ex-Hawthorns star Brandon Thomas-Asante is one of the best in the Championship.
But is this the kind of striker West Brom signed anyway? Was he meant to be someone lighting up the goalscoring charts, or was he meant to be playing more of a supporting role to help link-up play and create chances for his teammates?
| Club | xG | Goals scored | |
| 1. Haji Wright | Coventry | 7.49 | 8 |
| 2. Brandon Thomas-Asante | Coventry | 4.41 | 5 |
| 3. George Hirst | Ipswich | 3.97 | 3 |
| 18. Aune Heggebo | West Brom | 2.4 | 1 |
At Brann, he was a goalscorer. He averaged a goal every 2.8 games with 51 strikes in 146 games for the Norwegian club. However, his rate was slightly lower in the Eliteserien – Norway’s top division – with 28 goals in 91 games, roughly 3.25 games per goal.
The Championship is a better league than the Eliteserien, so the goalscoring rate is bound to drop even more. I don’t want to see it drop as low as the nine games per goal it has dropped to, but there are at least some things that fans should still be excited and impressed by.
How Aune Heggebo can still be a West Brom hero this season
Only three strikers in the Championship have supplied more assists than Heggebo this season.
The 24-year-old set up Isaac Price‘s goal against Blackburn on the opening day of the Championship campaign before assisting Samuel Iling-Junior‘s first Albion goal against Leicester last month.
Sofascore’s stats show that despite only completing six key passes, Heggebo is among the most handy strikers in setting up teammates in the whole of the Championship.
For every three key passes, Heggebo sets up a goal, which is a more prolific rate than any of the other top-seven ranked strikers in the Championship for assists.
Am I clutching at straws with this one? Maybe. But Heggebo has looked to me like a striker who enjoys dropping a bit deeper and being more involved with his teammates than playing in a lone role.
The big test now for Ryan Mason is to decide on how to move forward because, clearly, West Brom’s attack is struggling massively.
Playing Heggebo and Maja up front together is a no-brainer for me.
Maja’s shown that when given the chance from the get-go, he can find the back of the net.
And Heggebo has shown that he’s more than capable of being more of a support act while up front.
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