OPINION
For all of West Brom’s mouth-watering attacking play, Darren Moore’s side is embarrassingly poor in defence and plans must be made ahead of the January transfer window to improve that area of the squad.
The main issue is that Albion play with a back-three, but you can hardly desribe Kyle Bartley, Craig Dawson or Ahmed Hegazi as ball-players and none of them are left-footed to play on the left-hand side of the rearguard.
Bartley has drawn the short straw this season and his performances have been poor as a result, so it is clear that Moore needs to go out and buy someone who is perfect for that role.
Fulham centre-back Tim Ream is exactly the man that West Brom need to go after in the winter, and the USA international may be someone who sounds quite familiar to some supporters.
According to the Birmingham Mail, the 31-year-old had a trial with the Black Country club in 2011 while he was on the books with New York Red Bull, however it was Bolton who eventually made the move for him and the USA international officially touched down in the UK.
Roy Hodsgon, a manager known for setting up hard-to-beat defences, was in charge of the Baggies when they were taking a look at Ream, so he is certainly someone who can impress the right man.
Since that trial seven years ago, Ream has amassed 208 Championship appearances with both Bolton and Fulham, who he helped to promotion last season by appearing in 48 games across all competitions.
Now in the Premier League, the left-footed centre-back, who is adept at moving the ball out of defence, may struggle to get as much game-time and thus, could be moved on by Fulham in January.
West Brom need to table a bid for Ream as soon as they can because no one in England is more perfectly suited towards solving this left-sided centre-back issue that is seeing the side leak goals every week, and The Hawthorns will surely erupt with joy at finally figuring out this problem.
If they don’t, then a dip in form for players like Dwight Gayle and Jay Rodriguez could leave the Black Country club’s promotion hopes in tatters.