West Bromwich Albion fell to their first defeat of the Championship season away at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, with Danny Rohl’s men coming up trumps 3-2 at the expense of the Baggies.
This will be an unusual feeling for the West Midlands side to now wrestle with, having won all but one of their second-tier games this season before coming unstuck at Hillsborough.
Carlos Corberan would have felt let down at the final whistle by his side’s efforts, as West Brom were breached three times, after priding themselves on being a dogged team at the back all campaign up to this point.
West Brom's biggest underperformers vs Wednesday
It’s not as if Wednesday were in unbelievable form heading into this lunchtime clash either, having lost three of their last four games in the league until Corberan’s men came to town.
The usually resilient Baggies defence had a notable off-day in South Yorkshire, with Darnell Furlong even scoring an own goal in a disastrous first 45 minutes for his team, as West Brom were two goals down after just 23 minutes of action.
The Baggies did display some fight to level the scores back at 2-2 late on, but laxer defending allowed Anthony Musaba to tap home this late winner for the hosts, which inflicted a rare defeat next to West Brom’s name in the early Championship standings.
Not even West Brom dominating most of the possession at 70% could help them pull off another league victory, as Alex Palmer had to pick the ball out of his net three times, despite Wednesday only managing an overall xG of 1.19 in the game.
Expected Goals (xG) is a metric designed to measure the probability of a shot resulting in a goal.
New recruits Torbjørn Heggem and Uroš Račić also put in weak showings, away from the leaky shot-stopper, with Račić only managing to complete 18 accurate passes from the holding midfield positions, on top of Heggem having a tough time containing the likes of Josh Windass patrolling forward for the hosts.
There was one more notable underperformer who could see his position filled up by someone else for West Brom’s test against Middlesbrough tomorrow, as Karlan Grant put in another forgettable display after an otherwise encouraging start to the campaign.
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Grant's performance vs Wednesday
With Mikey Johnston and Grady Diangana waiting in the wings patiently, the time could now be right for Corberan to ditch Grant, after putting his faith in him during the infancy of this season.
The quiet Baggies number 18 never got going at Hillsborough, with only 19 touches of the ball registered from his lacklustre hour on the pitch, as a shaky Palmer in-between the sticks even registered more at 36.
Minutes played
60
Goals scored
0
Assists
0
Shots
2
Big chances missed
1
Touches
19
Accurate passes
7/11 (64%)
Only managing to amass seven accurate passes when on the pitch too, Corberan could well have exercised all the patience he is capable of with the ex-Huddersfield Town attacker, who does have a goal to show for his troubles this season away from this no-show away at Wednesday.
But, with Diangana impressing late on with two successful dribbles and just one misplaced pass, the Congolese forward might well start over the underperforming Grant against Michael Carrick’s side on Tuesday night.
Johnston is also another face Corberan could throw into the deep end – ahead of Grant – to try and get a reaction out of his troops, with the former Celtic man yet to get started this campaign for his new permanent employers after a goal-laden loan spell last season.
Whatever team the Spaniard does decide to pick, West Brom cannot allow for this loss to be anything but a blip if they’re truly serious about their chances of finishing in those coveted automatic promotion spots.
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