Danny Mills issues gloomy West Brom verdict after Swansea City loss | OneFootball

Former Leeds United defender Danny Mills believes West Bromwich Albion’s loss to Swansea City in midweek has given other Championship teams an idea of how to beat the Baggies for the remainder of this campaign, speaking to Football Insider.

Despite taking the lead at the Swansea.com Stadium within the first minute through Karlan Grant, second-half goals from Joel Piroe and Jamie Paterson turned the game on its head and consigned Valerien Ismael’s men to their second defeat in three games.

After going unbeaten in their first ten league matches of the 2021/22 season, these recent away losses at Stoke City and Swansea City will be a huge source of disappointment for Baggies fans who are desperate to see their team get back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

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Their result in Wales on Wednesday night relegated them to third spot after Fulham’s comfortable home win against strugglers Cardiff City, putting the pressure on the West Midlands side to play catch up and reclaim their automatic promotion spot.

This was something they were able to do during the 2019/20 campaign, capitalising on Brentford’s losses at the end of that term to steal second spot and avoid the lottery of the play-offs.

But pundit Mills believes their midweek loss could be a lesson for other teams in the second tier, saying: “They were effective up to a point, they had 33 per cent possession (against Swansea). The ball went out of play an unbelievable amount of times.

“What was it Brian Clough said,’ If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he’d have put grass up there.’?

“It’s direct to the extreme. When plan A doesn’t work, then plan B is just different personnel but still lumping it up the pitch.

“Swansea learnt that once you get past the press then you can really cause some problems. That’s exactly what they did, Swansea.

“That’s going to be a lesson for everybody else playing against West Brom. If you’re brave and you get two or three passes in to beat that initial press, you can get at them and you can cause them problems.

“Yes, they will bully a fair few teams and cause plenty of problems, but to go a whole season playing with that style, it looks like it will be very, very difficult.”

The Verdict:

The style of play at West Brom isn’t really a problem unless it starts to become predictable.

At this stage in the Baggies’ history, results are more important than performances in their quest for promotion and despite recent losses, they are still in a decent position to push for an automatic promotion spot this term, something you couldn’t say about fellow relegated side Sheffield United.

As long as they can stay in the mix for automatic promotion, they have every chance of achieving this goal with AFC Bournemouth inevitably slipping up at some point in the season and Fulham showing their vulnerabilities against the likes of Reading and Coventry City already this term.

The progress of Bournemouth will be particularly fascinating to Ismael’s men and their supporters, because they haven’t had to bounce back from a league loss under manager Scott Parker yet and it remains to be seen whether they would crumble when a defeat finally comes their way.

Fair play to the Cherries, because they have been outstanding, but West Brom shouldn’t lose faith.

A plan B, a couple of reinforcements in January and consistency will keep them in the promotion mix and in the end, this ability to retain their unpredictability could only help with the latter requirement of staying consistent.