West Brom dropped a clanger with Griffiths

West Brom have had a really disappointing begin to the 2022/23 Championship season however the statistics present that they might and needs to be doing so much higher.

The Baggies presently sit twenty first within the second tier after only one win from their opening ten matches, which got here in a 5-2 thrashing of Hull Metropolis.

Bruce has issues at each ends of the pitch, as regardless of being high of the expected goals table with a median of two.04 anticipated per match, they’ve scored 15 occasions thus far this season, 5 of which got here in a single sport.

In the meantime, additionally they high the desk for expected goals against with simply a median of 1.1 anticipated targets in opposition to per sport, which means that a few of the blame should lie with first-choice goalkeeper David Button, who has shipped 14 times thus far this season.

After the departure of Sam Johnstone in the summertime, Bruce opted in opposition to bringing in a brand new goalkeeper, with Button beginning all ten video games this season, averaging a stunning 6.11 score from WhoScored for his performances.

Did Bruce make an enormous mistake right here?

This ranks him because the worst performer in Bruce’s squad of these to begin at the very least one sport, which means that Bruce has made a mistake in placing his religion in him as primary. To make issues worse, the stopper additionally has the worst save proportion of all 26 goalkeepers used within the division this time period, with a dreadful return of simply 50%.

The choice is probably much more baffling when you think about that the Baggies possess one of many high younger goalkeepers within the EFL in Josh Griffiths.

Regardless of being a starter for Cheltenham City and Lincoln Metropolis up to now two seasons, Bruce determined to ship Griffiths out on mortgage once more this season relatively than giving him an opportunity, with Portsmouth the beneficiaries.

Throughout his time with the Robins, the place he helped them to promotion from League Two, chairman Andy Wilcox was stuffed with reward for Griffiths, saying:

“He actually loved it right here. I watched him from sport one to his final of the season and he’s improved no finish.

“He’s simply received higher and higher, so credit score to Booky [Steve Book, goalkeeping coach] for giving him confidence. He has an enormous future, that lad.”

The 21-year-old has made nine appearances in League One, wherein he has conceded simply eight targets and stored 4 clear sheets with a save success fee of 70.4%. That actually suggests, on present type at the very least, he could be an enormous improve on Button in Bruce’s facet.

Subsequently, it appears truthful to counsel that loaning him out was one other mistake by Bruce this summer time and followers will certainly be hoping to see Griffiths take over as primary on the Hawthorns within the not-too-distant future.