Pundit Adrian Clarke has recently made a claim about West Bromwich Albion and he has made it clear that the club’s dressing room will be feeling very low ahead of the game against Arsenal.
Clarke appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the Totally Football Show podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Premier League. One topic of discussion was West Bromwich Albion and their form. Clarke believes that because of the managerial change and Sam Allardyce’s latest comments, the Baggies will be feeling very low ahead of the Arsenal game.
Allardyce had recently replaced Slaven Bilic as the Baggies’ boss and while they held Liverpool to a draw recently, they lost 5-0 to Leeds United. After the loss to the Whites, Allardyce had questioned the players’ lack of fight and determination.
Will Allardyce's comments demotivate the West Brom players?
Yes
No
Clarke was talking about Allardyce’s comments and he believes that they could be a reason why the West Brom players would be feeling a little low ahead of the Arsenal game.
He said (18:05): “He’s laid into his players, he’s basically said that they’re not good enough and he’ll be looking to bring in upgrades in January. I do wonder how that will have down in the dressing room, a dressing room that I’m sure will have been quite sad to see Slaven Bilic go. He’s the guy that steered them towards promotion. So I’m not buying into the theory that Slaven had lost the dressing room and everyone was welcoming Big Sam with open arms. I think that dressing room will feel very very low, ahead of the Arsenal game.”
TIF Thoughts on Clarke’s comments on West Brom’s dressing room…
While it remains to be seen how West Brom players react to Allardyce’s comments about their determination, the manager also made it clear that he now has doubts about the players’ attitude as Leeds had actually run them off the field. He also accused them of complacency after the draw at Liverpool (as per TalkSport).
So while the comments were harsh, Expected Goals suggest that West Brom weren’t too bad at all against Leeds. The Whites had generated an xG of only 0.9, as compared to the Baggies’ 0.6. Leeds had just massively overperformed on xG, which shows that a lot of it was down to luck. So West Brom players can take encouragement from this, instead of feeling low about it.