West Bromwich Albion have been closely linked throughout the summer season with Studying striker Lucas Joao, and the Portuguese star may have represented an vital coup given their reliance on Karlan Grant to attain all of the objectives.
Stories late within the window recommended the Baggies had made a transfer to signal the Royals marksman, however that appeared to fall by means of and Steve Bruce was left scrambling to signal Salford Metropolis striker Brandon Thomas-Asante final minute.
Had he managed to signal Joao as a substitute nevertheless, regardless of the latter’s effective begin to life on the Hawthorns, maybe his aspect wouldn’t be in as a lot peril as they at present are.
Ought to West Brom have signed Lucas Joao?
Sure
No
West Brom sit in 20th, with only one win from 9 Championship video games. This marks abysmal type for a aspect that had desires of a promotion push. Issues are but to get simpler too, as tomorrow they journey to second-placed Norwich Metropolis.
An enormous subject with their season has been their toothless nature. This was foreseen after their January signing Daryl Dike was dominated out till after the World Cup.
He was not changed in the summertime, and now Bruce’s aspect have scored 14 objectives in 9 appearances. Nevertheless, 5 of these objectives got here in a single sport towards Hull Metropolis, which papers over the cracks considerably.
Joao already has three objectives this season in simply six appearances, together with a match-winning brace in his aspect’s 2-1 win over Stoke Metropolis.
He has confirmed his credentials as a match winner, one thing which West Brom are clearly missing.
Grant additionally has three league objectives, however in 9 matches as a substitute. So as to add competitors for his place would certainly have compelled higher performances out of the 24-year-old, and if not then the deadly Joao may have taken his place.
In actual fact, he has been a constant Championship aim scorer all throughout his 213 appearances. He has scored 67 occasions and chipped in with an additional 27 assists.
With Paul Ince having labelled the 29-year-old a “nice finisher”, it considerably mocks the Baggies as that’s precisely what they want. In opposition to Birmingham Metropolis, they’d 66% possession and 18 photographs, but nonetheless ran out 3-2 losers.
Joao is precisely the kind of participant they wanted, however they let him get away and are paying the value due to it.
