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Survival Of The Fittest In West Brown! Forget Molumby: Corberan Must Hand 1st Start To “Talented” West Brom Ace
Forget Molumby: Corberan must hand 1st start to “talented” West Brom ace
West Bromwich Albion will look to keep up their unbeaten record in the Championship today, as Luke Williams’ Swansea City travel to the Hawthorns.
Both of West Brom’s early season victories have come away from their home ground, however, with a 3-1 win collected on the opening day away at Queens Park Rangers coming about owing to a superb Josh Maja hat-trick, alongside the most recent 2-1 win at Stoke City seeing Karlan Grant get in amongst the goals.
The only home game of the league campaign so far saw the Baggies draw 0-0 with Leeds United in a rather drab affair, with Jayson Molumby at risk of dropping out of the side altogether for the testing clash with the Swans later on, despite starting all three second tier matches to date.
Molumby’s performance vs Stoke
In an ideal world, Carlos Corberan would call upon Okay Yokuslu to be one of his starters in the holding midfield positions today, but the no-nonsense Turkish midfielder is now back playing in his native country with Trabzonspor.
Instead, the Spanish boss has had to rely on Molumby to start alongside Alex Mowatt in the infancy of this season to date, with the Irishman struggling at points at Stoke, despite the positive final scoreline.
The Baggies number eight would only win three of the eight duels that came his way during the 2-1 victory, with a complete lack of attacking presence also coming from his game, with zero shots or key passes registered to help his teammates venturing forward.
Thankfully, the likes of Grant and Maja delivered the goods with a goal apiece in the slender win, whilst his midfield partner in Mowatt also helped himself to a singular key pass, to show to Molumby what was missing from his forgettable display
This could open the door for Corberan to experiment with his starting line-up, therefore, with the potential for the former Huddersfield Town manager to even gift new summer recruit Ousmane Diakite his first start in West Brom blue and white, after a promising late cameo against the Potters.
Why Diakite could start against Swansea
The former TSV Hartberg man stood out, despite only being present on the pitch for four minutes against Stoke, with a grit present in his game that was necessary to ensure a narrow win was secured as the clock ticked down.
Failing to also misplace a single pass from just ten touches of the ball, the Malian midfielder might well find he’s gifted a surprise start against the visitors from Wales today, over his lacklustre teammate.
Bettering the amount of duels Molumby won with four next to his name too, Diakite helped West Brom to see out the final few minutes with less anxiety present, having made a crunching tackle right at the death to stop a potential Potters breakaway breaching the Baggies at the back.
Labelled as a ‘”talented” player when first signing for the club back in June on a free transfer by Corberan, the 24-year-old’s moment in the first team spotlight could come versus Swansea, even with Uros Racic potentially pushing for some minutes, after sitting out the Stoke win owing to work permit issue
If West Brom are to start Diakite from the get-go in a surprise personnel switch, it would be a real test to see if the depth is strong enough at the Championship side to mount a serious promotion charge, as the West Midlands outfit eye up another early season three points
