West Bromwich Albion podcaster Adrian Goldberg has been sharing his criticism for Baggies winger Grady Diangana for his display during the club’s 1-1 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion on Monday night.
This comes after Goldberg recently co-hosted the latest episode of West Brom-themed podcast The Liquidator, where he spoke about a range of topics concerning the Midlands club.
On the topic of Diangana and his performance against the Seagulls, Goldberg had this to say on the matter.
He said: “The one player who disappointed me was Diangana, and I’ve mentioned this before about Diangana – that he wants to score the amazing goal every time, and we applaud him when he occasionally does that, but he’s got to learn in the Premier League, there’s so much more to being a Premier League footballer than that and I was disappointed with his work-rate.
“He was up on his flank against [Tariq] Lamptey, who’s a really exciting attacking wing-back for Brighton, and he left Conor Townsend exposed, I thought. Townsend isn’t the best defensive left-back anyway, but I really felt that Diangana didn’t put a shift in defensively and that was one of the reasons why we struggled in the first half. Much better in the second half – sad to say, when Diangana went off, and I like the guy, don’t get me wrong, and he can deliver special moments – but he does need to up his work-rate, I think.”
Diangana, who is now valued at £10.8 million (as per Transfermarkt), originally joined West Brom on a season-long loan deal in August 2019 for the club’s 2019/20 season from West Ham United. Then in September this year, the Baggies signed the winger on a permanent basis from West Ham in a deal worth a reported fee of £12.15 million.
Last season, the winger made 30 Championship appearances for Slaven Bilic’s side in which he managed to score eight goals and provide six assists, ultimately earning himself a solid season rating of 7.13/10 (per WhoScored).
In their recent draw against Brighton, Diangana was substituted off the pitch in the second half and earned himself an uninspiring match rating of 6.05/10.
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TIF Thoughts on Goldberg’s comments on Diangana’s performance against Brighton…
It’s a shame to hear that Goldberg thinks Diangana had a disappointing performance against Brighton on Monday and that he needs to improve on the work he puts in for his team on the defensive side of things.
Hopefully, Diangana can learn from this experience and focus on improving himself for the good of his team.