West Bromwich Albion journalist and podcaster Adrian Goldberg has been sharing his thoughts on Baggies winger Grady Diangana and his future at the Midlands club.
This comes after Goldberg co-hosted the latest edition of West Brom-themed podcast The Liquidator, where he spoke about a number of topics concerning Valerien Ismael’s side.
On the subject of Diangana and his future at The Hawthorns, Goldberg had this to say about the player.
He said: “I think the Premier League is refereed very differently to the Championship, and I much prefer the refereeing at Championship level. More stuff is allowed to go, more little niggles and fouls are allowed to go. To me, that’s closer to the heart of football than the ‘I’ll blow on you and you’ll fall over and it’s a free kick’ of the Premier League.
“And although Diangana had a very good season that promotion season under [Slaven] Bilic, so in that sense, he is battle-hardened, I think he has that tendency, very much a Premier League tendency, to roll over as soon as he is tapped.
“Well, in the Championship, referees aren’t going to buy that, they’re not going to give you the free kick.
“I would put a big question mark over him under Ismael, I really would.”
West Brom originally signed Diangana back in August 2019 from Premier League side West Ham United on a loan deal before securing him on a permanent deal for a fee of £12.15 million during the previous summer transfer window.
Overall, the 23-year-old, who is currently valued at £9 million, has made 54 appearances for the Baggies in which he has managed to score nine goals and provide seven assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Adrian Goldberg’s comments on Diangana…
Given how Diangana has made an appearance in both of West Brom’s Championship games so far this season, that suggests that his place in the team and at the club is not in any danger at this moment in time, despite Goldberg’s suggestion he could fall out of favour at some point.
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However, taking into account how the Englishman has yet to register a goal or assist for the team this season and only managed to earn himself a rather uninspiring overall performance rating of 6.29/10, making him one of the lowest-rated Baggies players so far in this campaign according to WhoScored, Diangana may have to step his game up soon to keep his place in the team, even though it’s still early in the season.
In our view, based on what Goldberg had to say about Diangana going to ground too often instead of staying on his feet, if the winger can readapt to the physicality of the Championship, then he should be able to have a decent season with the Baggies considering he’s played in the division with the club before.