OPINION
West Brom continued their improved form with an emphatic 7-1 victory over QPR at The Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon as the Black Country club registered their biggest league win in 11 years.
Matt Phillips and Jay Rodriguez both bagged themselves a brace while there were also goals for Kieran Gibbs, Dwight Gayle and Hal-Robson Kanu.
The only blemish on a near-perfect afternoon for the Baggies was Joel Lynch’s first-half goal for the visitors.
Here, This is Futbol has rounded up three things we learned from the Baggies’ huge win:
3-4-1-2 is the way forward
Darren Moore experimented with his formation in the 1-0 Carabao Cup win against Luton on Tuesday night and decided to keep a similar system when QPR travelled to the West Midlands this weekend. It worked an absolute treat with Gibbs and Phillips flying down both of the wings and the front trio of Rodriguez, Gayle and Harvey Barnes left the QPR defence in tatters. It will be interesting to see whether Moore changes back to a 4-4-2 system away at Middlesbrough next week as they will no doubt be a much tougher test for the Baggies, but this 4-2-3-1 certainly looks as though it’s the best way to get results this season.
Barnes is the best loan signing since Lukaku
Not many West Brom fans had heard of Barnes before he joined on loan from Leicester in the summer transfer window but he has been an absolute revelation in the blue and white stripes. While he didn’t manage to get any goals or assist in the 7-1 humiliation of QPR, he was without doubt one of the top three players for Albion as he tore the away side’s defence to shreds in the second half. West Brom have not had much luck with loan signings in recent years and Barnes is looking as though he is the best temporary addition since Romelu Lukaku.
Brunt must be axed
While West Brom won 7-1, there were some negatives to their performance. The period between Phillips’ opener and the end of the first-half was absolutely dire and Chris Brunt’s performance in midfield did not really help in that. The £45,000-a-week (Spotrac) midfielder has lost too much pace to play in the centre of midfield alongside Jake Livermore and gave away some poor free-kicks. Moore has better options on the bench and they should come in to replace Brunt. Gareth Barry looked composed when he came on while youngster Sam Field is very much regarded as the future of the club and should also be considered to replace Brunt. The Northern Ireland international is a modern day hero at The Hawthorns, but he has not shown a lot to prove he deserves to start every single game in the opening games of the campaign.