What’s next for West Bromwich Albion?
West Bromwich Albion started the Premier League season with two wins. Followed by 32 matches with just two more wins. One was last weekend against Manchester United at Old Trafford, handing Manchester City the title.
They are nine points off safety with four matches to go, and Swansea have a game in hand. The baggies will be playing in the Championship next season after a terrible season.
However, they’ve been unlucky and underperformed. According to understat, they should be sat in 12th position, based of their expected goals. They should have scored 4.7 more goals and conceded 9.6 fewer.
The Squad
Looking at the make up of their swap, it’s not great for the long term. They have a pretty consistent squad, with 13 players who have played over 50% of the minutes.
However, no players aged under 26 played more than 20% of minutes. 10 of the 13 players who played over 50% are in their primes* right now. It’s an ageing, experienced squad.
West Brom are on their fourth manager of the season. Pulis was followed by caretaker Megson for two games, before Pardew came in. Pardew was eventually sacked and Darren Moore has been promoted to manager now.
The squad is a very Tony Pulis squad. It is a physical team of largely Britons, that excelled at set pieces. There is a lack of pace and flair. A playmaker is clearly absent, their centre midfielders are all defensively minded and aren’t going to create much. Chris Brunt has the most key passes for WBA per 90 minutes, with 1.8. 67% of these key passes were from long balls.
Next Season
Presumably, West Brom will be spending next season in the Championship. So, where do they go from here?
They started this unsuccessful season with an already ageing squad. You can assume they where will be a lot of departures this summer. Relegated sides can often experience fire sales as their best players move to bigger leagues or remain in the Premier League.
Chadli, Evans, Phillips, Livermore, Krychowiak, Rondon and Hegazi are the players I’d assume will be receiving interest.
So you can presume a large proportion of the core of their squad will leave the club. They’ll get some decent fees for the departing players, prize money, new TV money and parachute funds. So they’ve got money to play with.
The have an ageing squad which is about to disintegrate. However, I wouldn’t necessarily see this as negative, but more of an opportunity.
West Brom have the reputation and money to rebuild a youthful squad able to take them back to the Premier League. This summer’s recruitment is key. West Brom have made a clear intention of making strong recruitment and building a strong squad by bringing in a Technical Consultant.
Who they should but is probably for another article. It starts with who they bring in as manager and the type of squad they are looking for. At the moment, it’s impossible to say.
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*I’m using 25–30 as the general prime. This is the general age accepted. This is a disclaimer to say that there is variation for different players and positions.
