Joseph Masi has been speaking on the Baggies Broadcast about West Brom’s long-standing interest in Daryl Dike.
The Baggies reportedly had Dike on a shortlist of strikers they were interested in over the summer, with this list also including Manchester City’s Liam Delap, although moves for either of them failed to materialise and they had to settle with the sole centre-forward arrival of Jordan Hugill.
Do West Brom need a new striker?
Yes
No
Dike has been proving why West Brom were interested in him by lighting up MLS with Orlando City having scored nine in 17 appearances already and he can also do it in the Championship, as he proved last campaign with nine goals for Barnsley under Valerien Ismael, so the Baggies boss can clearly get the most out of Dike and may have made a difference to this Albion side if he was brought in during the summer.
Masi discussed how the Baggies are still interested in Dike and what he may have changed if he had arrived before the campaign started.
“Dike, as I’ve said a million times, what we understand is that he’s very much top of the list, he’s almost like the one player Valerien Ismael wants. No doubt, he would have a massive impact on the squad.
“Steve Madeley did a piece in The Athletic about him, I might be wrong but in all his games for Barnsley, he either got one or zero assists.
“I think that tells you a lot about him in the sense that he is a proper out-and-out number nine. Look at Albion’s forwards and you can’t imagine them going through half a season only getting one assist.”
TIF Thoughts on Dike…
It’s clear that Ismael is a huge fan of Dike as he signed him for Barnsley in January and wanted a reunion with him at The Hawthorns, and with Albion’s strikers struggling for goals this season on a consistent basis, Dike may have been worth splashing out a transfer fee for, or at least a significant loan fee.
If West Brom are struggling to put the ball in the back of the net on a consistent basis, Dike may have been the perfect solution.
His stats suggest he is an out-and-out striker who loves scoring goals and that is his main focus. The striker has managed to register just four assists in 64 games since making his professional debut in 2020, so he is clearly focused purely on scoring goals.
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