West Brom blundered with Lucas Joao deal

West Bromwich Albion had 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.

Reports late within the window steered the Baggies had made a transfer to signal the Royals marksman, however that appeared to fall by way of and Steve Bruce was left scrambling to sign Salford Metropolis striker Brandon Thomas-Asante final minute.

Had he managed to signal Joao as a substitute nonetheless, regardless of the latter’s fine start to life on the Hawthorns, maybe his aspect wouldn’t be in as a lot peril as they presently are.

Ought to West Brom have signed Lucas Joao?

West Brom sit in 20^th, with only one win from 9 Championship video games. This marks abysmal kind 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.

A giant difficulty with their season has been their toothless nature. This was foreseen after their January signing Daryl Dike was ruled 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, five 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 nine matches as a substitute. So as to add competitors for his place would absolutely have compelled higher performances out of the 24-year-old, and if not then the deadly Joao may have taken his place.

Actually, 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 “great finisher”, it considerably mocks the Baggies as that’s precisely what they want. Towards Birmingham Metropolis, they’d 66% possession and 18 pictures, 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.