West Bromwich Albion‘s struggles in front of goal is causing the Baggies a ‘major problem’, according to former Swindon Town and Walsall attacker Sam Parkin.
The Birmingham-based side have spent the majority of the season in the play-off positions and looked nailed on for a top six finish. However, a run of five games without a win has seen them slip to eighth int the Championship. Even more concerning, they are now five points behind sixth-placed Coventry City with five games left to play.
The one plus for Tony Mowbray’s side is that they appear to have a favourable run-in. They host Watford tomorrow afternoon before a six-pointer at Coventry. They then finish the campaign against three teams fighting for survival in Derby County, Cardiff City and Luton Town.
Lack Of Goals Proving Costly
West Brom have struggled since talisman Josh Maja picked up an injury in January. The former Sunderland striker had 12 goals in 26 league appearances prior to suffering a lower leg complaint.
It’s proved a costly loss for the Baggies, who have scored just 16 times since, with five of those coming in one game when they beat Portsmouth 5-1 at the end of January. They did bring in Adam Armstrong on loan in an attempt to salvage the situation, but the Scottish international has found the net just twice since arriving from Southampton.
According to Sam Parkin, their lack of fire power is an ongoing concern for Tony Mowbray. Speaking on the Championship Check-In Show, he said:
“I expected and was pretty sure that Adam Armstrong would be probably the finest signing in the Championship this season.
“I thought he would probably catapult them into the play-offs no question – I think he’s got two goals. (I) Don’t think Karlan Grant has scored this calendar year thus far. So, they have got a big problem in the forward positions, only Millwall scored fewer in the top half.
“I know he has only come in relatively recently, but not something you’d probably associate with Tony Mowbray. Yes, with West Brom you’d expect them to win a lot of low margin games, but you would expect them to have improved in that regard under Mowbray, so not scoring goals, one win in seven, horribly out of form.”
Writer’s View
West Brom have had it all to contend with this season. They lost head coach Carlos Coberan just before Christmas, but it’s arguably the injury to Josh Maja that has derailed their campaign. They’re not out of the play-off race by any stretch. Six points in their next two games would put them right back in the mix. On current form though, that looks unlikely.
