West Brom 1-1 Stoke Six Things: fortune favours the brave

West Brom 1-1 Stoke – skysports.com

A substitution-inspired Stoke resurgence saw the Potters draw 1-1 with West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns. What have we learnt from the game? Here’s our take.

West Brom’s set piece threat

The sole purpose of Salomon Rondon’s performance appeared to be to help the team up the pitch and win free-kicks. This trend, which might have damaged his natural goalscoring instinct over the last eight months, looks related to how he is coached. With such a tall side though, set pieces were West Brom’s main threat. Chris Brunt’s fifth-minute corner was sent deep to the back post, where fellow stalwart James Morrison couldn’t quite make the right contact.

Stoke’s stale first half play

The visitors were tasked with breaking down the Baggies, but with two defensive minded wing-backs in Geoff Cameron and Eric Pieters, they could not get to the byline. Any ball into the box therefore had to be played high from deep, which suited the gigantic figures of Craig Dawson and Ahmed Hegazi. The defensive duo, with an average height 1.91 m, relished aerial battles against either Jese, Xherdan Shaqiri or Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, who have an average height of 1.77.

Zouma’s ambition

It says something about the away side’s attacking play that they came closest to scoring through their centre-back, via an opposing player. Kurt Zouma enjoyed an impressive first half and his long-range effort was deflected goalwards by the back of Gareth Barry, but Ben Foster was alert to tip it over. Zouma was twice inclined to try his luck from distance, an indication of how well West Brom denied space for their most naturally attacking players.

Rodriguez opens it

As Stoke sat back more after the break, their opponents grew in confidence. Allan Nyom’s pace had played a crucial role in halting the away side’s first half breakaways, but this time it came to light in a more attacking sense. The right-back crossed superbly to the back-post and Jay Rodriguez nodded home from close range. Egyptian Hegazi might have added a second from another Brunt set piece, but Jack Butland tipped his header over the bar.

Fortune favoured the brave

In an attempt to shut the game out, Tony Pulis replaced Morrison with a more defensive midfielder in Claudio Yacob, an arguably negative change that resulted in Albion inviting pressure. By contrast, his fellow Welshman Mark Hughes made two positive substitutions. The arrivals of Peter Crouch and Ramadan Sobhi respectively gave Stoke the two things they had missed in the first half: 1. A target man 2. Width. Crouch occupied Dawson far better than Jese had while Sobhi attacked the flank more ably than Cameron, so it was no surprise that the duo combined for the equalizer. They got a slice of luck, Sobhi’s cross misjudged by his compatriot Hegazi in a moment of miscommunication with Ben Foster, which allowed Crouch to nod home. The 36-year-old has scored over 50 top flight headers in his career but few will have been so simple.

In summary

The draw means that West Brom have lost their 100% record. They can be content with the defensive qualities shown so far, but having scored from their only non-set piece chances in the last two games, valid questions remain over their capacity to create in open play. Stoke’s defence looks similarly strong. While their attacking play for much of the contest lacked penetration, today proved that they have the options to change games that aren’t going their way.