West Brom suffered defeat against Leicester City in the Championship last weekend, with the absence of one man evident.
West Brom hosted league leaders Leicester City on Saturday in what promised to be an exciting game between two of the Championship’s best sides.
The Baggies went into this one in good form and many expected them to give Leicester City a good game, and threaten to take all three points.
And Carlos Corberan‘s side had their chances, but in the end, Enzo Maresca’s Leicester City scored in dramatic fashion to nick all three points.
West Brom criticised after ‘insane’ ending
Harry Winks scored right at the death to give Leicester City all three points.
The Foxes managed to clear a late West Brom corner with the ball falling to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall who burst forward, squaring the ball to Winks who fired into an empty goal.
But the way in which Leicester nicked the win has received criticism from Baggies supporters and reporters alike, with The Sun’s Justin Allen labelling the incident as ‘insane’.
West Brom threw almost every player up for that last corner which allowed Leicester to break and eventually score.
It was a frustrating end to the game and an outcome that could quite easily have been avoided.
Kyle Bartley’s experience was a miss on Saturday
Kyle Bartley missed the game on Saturday with a hamstring injury.
Corberan seemed to play down the severity of the injury, but at 32 years old and having had injury problems in the past, Corberan will no doubt pay caution to any kind of niggle that Bartley has.
Still, his absence on Saturday was evident; West Brom hadn’t conceded more than one goal in any game since that 3-1 loss at Birmingham City back in October, with Bartley having recently cemented his place in the XI and having thoroughly impressed.
Corberan labelled his performance in the 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday in October as ‘excellent’, with reporter Lewis Cox later hailing Bartley as ‘utterly dominant’ in the win over Cardiff City before Leicester.
His experience and cool head at the back has helped West Brom surge up the table, and that would surely have helped to prevent Leicester’s late goal last weekend.
Why they threw so many players up for the corner remains to be seen.
A point would’ve been a good result and all three would’ve been great, hence their eagerness to score that late winner.
But that eagerness shot them in the foot and perhaps brought them back down to earth a bit, with the realisation that, to compete with the best in the league, they need to keep their cool and they need to count on all the experience they have.
Bartley brings that experience and then some, and Corberan will be praying for his speedy return to action.