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As Tammy Abraham tucked away his penalty to send Aston Villa to Wembley, West Brom hearts broke. Amid a raucous atmosphere at The Hawthorns last May, it was the kick that confirmed a play-off defeat for the Baggies.
Fast forward nine months, though, and perhaps that failure was a blessing for Albion. It facilitated a reset and, under a different manager in Slaven Bilic, they are six points clear at the top of the Championship, and the division’s leading scorers.
Not that they will be taking anything for granted in another captivating Championship promotion race. On 20 December, West Brom and Leeds were 12 and 10 points clear of third place respectively, yet such is the league’s unpredictability that Bilic’s team then failed to win in seven matches and Leeds have picked up only nine points in 10 games since. Leeds are level with Fulham in third place, with a gap of only three points to Bristol City, in seventh.
“The Championship is very interesting,” said Bilic ahead of Saturday’s game with Nottingham Forest. “Good quality matters of course but I don’t see that big a difference between teams, which means you have to be double focused.”
West Brom, despite their fourth-place finish last season, relied heavily on Dwight Gayle, Jay Rodriguez and Harvey Barnes, who was on loan during the first half of the season. Those three players scored 61.8% of West Brom’s goals and their moments of brilliance habitually bailed out poor team showings. Take a 4-0 victory over Rotherham for example. Rotherham missed a penalty, had an effort cleared off the line and stuck the woodwork twice but Dwight Gayle’s sumptuous hat-trick masked the deficiencies.
This season there is a stark improvement throughout the team. Their leading scorer, Charlie Austin, has only eight league goals, but there have been 17 different scorers. In 2018-19 West Brom kept eight clean sheets from 46 league games, yet under Bilic they have seven from 32. From conceding 1.33 goals per game last season, it has been reduced to 1.06 goals per game this term.
“Yes we have improved over the season. The mood is good and we have a good spell behind us,” said Bilic. “But we suffered before and were hurt. We never stopped believing and working hard. It’s much easier to be third, fourth or fifth than first or second – they are dreaming to be in the top two. But you have to cope with that if you want to be successful. It’s easy to be average but if you want to be the best actor or surgeon it costs a sacrifice.”
Last season’s side was predominantly drawn from the squad relegated in 2018 and an ageing squad was in need of rejuvenation after the play-offs. More than £25m was raised from the summer sales of Craig Dawson, Salomón Rondón and Jay Rodriguez.
West Brom traditionally thrived in their recruitment of relatively obscure bargains. For example, Peter Odemwingie, their record Premier League scorer, was plucked from Lokomotiv Moscow, and Gareth McAuley made 227 appearances after joining on a free from Ipswich.
Towards the end of their most recent eight-season stay in the top flight West Brom compromised this model. George Graham once said: “Never buy a player who’s taking a step down to join you. He will act as if he’s doing you a favour.” The signings of Grzegorz Krychowiak, Daniel Sturridge and Oliver Burke, whose preceding clubs were Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool and RB Leipzig respectively, perhaps demonstrates this.
The reset allowed the club to return to their successful recruitment tactic, with Semi Ajayi, Darnell Furlong and Romaine Sawyers arriving from Rotherham, Queens Park Rangers and Brentford respectively for a little over £5m in total. All have impressed. Matheus Pereira, signed on loan from Sporting Lisbon but never a regular there and sent away by his parent club for a third consecutive season, has dazzled, with six goals and 11 assists. In January the strategy was reaffirmed with the acquisition of Kamil Grosicki for £800,000 from Hull. The Pole has 18 assists and 15 goals over the past two Championship seasons. “With WBA my dreams can come true,” he said.
Comparisons have been made to Tony Mowbray’s West Brom who, after losing the 2007 play-off final, sold players such as Jason Koumas and Curtis Davies for multimillion-pound fees and brought in up-and-coming talents including Chris Brunt, the club captain almost 13 years on. The team won the Championship the following season.
Bilic, who guided West Ham to their record Premier League points total and humbled Steve McClaren’s England while in charge of Croatia, has reenergised the club, and the connection between players and fans is flourishing.
They have played some scintillating football, managing 54 goal attempts over their past two games, and appear to be superbly set up for the run-in with Bilic focused on the challenge ahead. “There is no time for the plaudits,” he said. “It is time to be confident but not time to rest and say yes we are great. We still have games to go. Forest are a complete team so we have a very difficult game.”
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