da heads bet： This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
da fazobetai： West Brom showed resilient character to put the first loss of their league campaign fully behind them as they defeated Cardiff in a six-goal thriller at the Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon.
In doing so, they regained top spot aloft the Championship table, meaning they head into the international break in a very healthy position.
Charlie Austin and Romaine Sawyers both picked up their first goals in a Baggies shirt, while the effervescent loan duo of Matheus Pereira and Grady Diangana fired in two scorchers before the break.
It is the presence of these two that have played such a massive role in their fortunes in the season so far.
On the Chalkboard
Refresh your minds back to summer when Bilic was desperately trying to search for options before the transfer window slammed shut – he even said he wanted four more players, and that’s precisely what he got.
The Croatian managed to clinch Austin for £4m from Southampton, but the late loan deals for both Diangana and Pereira have proven to be a masterstroke.
Between them, they have scored six goals (28.5% of West Brom’s total) and assisted eight more, which means 57% of Albion’s goals have been provided by one of these two players.
Pereira has even shown his exploits in the centre of the pitch, where he’s really starting to make that position his own – if he hasn’t already.
These two play in such an exciting and dynamic tandem it allows others to feed off that energy and contribute in many different ways.
Do you really think young Nathan Ferguson would have advanced up the pitch all by himself to slam home a long-range effort if he hadn’t seen what’s in front of him during the season so far?
Their work-rate and positioning also brings others into play – for instance, when Austin comes deep to link up with the Brazilian, it allows Matty Phillips or Diangana acres of space along each flank to cause damage, as shown by the WhoScored position map below.
Bilic’s move on deadline day has really paid dividends so far this campaign, it has also been a team effort all round, but these two are just different gravy in the Championship.
It could just prove telling in terms of their promotion hopes.