Football League World
·4 de diciembre de 2024
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·4 de diciembre de 2024
Former West Brom player and pundit Don Goodman has backed the Baggies to sign Joe Gelhardt during the January transfer window.
Don Goodman has backed West Bromwich Albion to sign Leeds United forward Joe Gelhardt to solve their creativity issues during the January transfer window.
Carlos Corberan has struggled to nail down his preferred players in attack during a streak of nine draws from their last ten Championship outings, which has seen the club slip out of the top six and remain eight points off an automatic promotion place.
Despite Josh Maja netting ten times so far this campaign and being the Championship’s second-highest scorer, creativity has been a real cause for concern, with Karlan Grant Albion’s second top scorer, netting just four times.
The likes of John Swift and Jed Wallace haven’t registered a single attacking contribution so far this term, while Mikey Johnston and Tom Fellows have struggled to replicate the form they showed last term in recent weeks.
The January transfer window will be an important period for Albion and is likely to decide where the club finds themselves at the end of the season, with Goodman feeling the time is right to get some fresh blood into the Baggies attack.
As reported by West Brom News, former Albion player Goodman believes Gelhardt are just what Albion are missing to add more goals at the top end of the pitch, with the Leeds United man having the potential to form a fruitful partnership alongside Maja.
Goodman said: “I would say there’s nothing to lose by going down that route, really. Very different type to Maja. Very easy to see them playing in the team together, rather than it being one or the other.
“He’s another one. He’s a little bit like Maja in that he wants to kickstart his career again because it hasn’t really worked out for him at Leeds United. I know he had a little loan spell at Sunderland and there were glimpses of what he was capable of. But he’s another player that just needs to sort of reset and go again, really.
“So for him to leave Leeds and be allowed to go to West Brom on loan, I think would be a win-win all around, if I’m honest with you. So yeah, it would make logical sense.”
With nine draws from their last ten games, it has shown that Albion are a very hard team to beat, but they’re just missing a crucial touch of quality in the final third to turn those stalemates into three points.
Gelhardt would be a welcomed boost to the Baggies’ attacking lineup, with options desperately needed for the gruelling second half of the Championship season.
Both Maja and Daryl Dike have had long-term injury absences in the past in a blue and white shirt, so another addition to Albion’s firepower will mean the club is well supplied even if hit with an injury crisis.
The 22-year-old Gelhardt has been left frustrated by a lack of opportunities at Leeds after a loan spell away at Sunderland in the last six months, so it seems right for all parties for a loan move at West Brom to materialise to see if he can resurrect his career and help Carlos Corberan’s men rediscover a magic spark in the opposition box.