One West Brom issue could cost them a shot at PL football next season | OneFootball

Draws have been the story of Albion's season

Over the course of recent history, West Bromwich Albion have always been associated as one of the Championship's strongest sides whenever the club has found itself in the division.

Since the turn of the millennium, the Baggies have earned promotion to the Premier League on no less than five occasions, as well as establishing themselves among English football's elite for an eight-year period between 2010 and 2018.

The club have since failed to consolidate in the Premier League during a solitary and chaotic campaign under Slaven Bilic and Sam Allardyce, but after a disastrous first season back in the second tier in 2021/22, Albion have shown green shoots of recovery on the pitch and in the boardroom, with Shilen Patel currently overseeing his first full season at the West Midlands club.

Whilst the American's ambition is to regain Albion's top-flight standing, there has been one major on-pitch concern that has come to the fore in B71 this season, and it could prove to be extremely detrimental in Tony Mowbray's play-off bid.

After suffering defeat to eventual play-off winners Southampton 11 months ago, previous head coach Carlos Corberan was able to mould an efficient squad together under his meticulous tactical guidance, despite not having the wealthiest of transfer budgets to work with after Patel's takeover last February.

Whilst many expected West Brom to be among those vying for promotion, supporters couldn't have asked for a better start to the season, with five wins in the first six games, with Josh Maja also starting the campaign like a house on fire with an opening day hat-trick against QPR, starting a run of seven goals in the first seven games.

Then came an extremely peculiar period of the season at The Hawthorns, as Albion followed back-to-back defeats against Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough with a 12-game unbeaten run, 10 of which were draws, and also saw the club break an unwanted record of just two goals from their first seven home outings.

This led to an unsurprising split of opinions, as Albion's defence continued their strong record from last season where just 47 goals were shipped, but goals and creative flair had effectively ceased to exist despite a plethora of attacking options in the form of Maja, John Swift, Alex Mowatt, Mikey Johnston, Tom Fellows and Karlan Grant.

Corberan understood the criticism which came his way prior to his Christmas Eve departure to Valencia, although the B71 outfit haven't managed to turn the corner on this particular front following Mowbray's appointment.

Tony Mowbray left continuously frustrated by key West Brom issue

The man who guided the club to the second tier title back in 2008 has overseen just four wins in the first 14 games of his second spell in charge, and has only seen his side score more than once in a game on three of those occasions, despite Daryl Dike's return to fitness and the January arrival of Adam Armstrong, who netted 26 times during the Saints' promotion-winning season last year.

Mowbray has continuously bemoaned a lack of ruthlessness in games from his men despite an overall possession percentage of 54.3% - the seventh-highest in the division.

"I think we just have to be more ruthless with the chances we create, the pressure we can build and the possession we have. We've got to have more end product," the 63-year-old said after last month's 1-1 draw with Hull City - a game which saw the Baggies create 16 chances, of which only three were on target.

Albion are among a cluster of four sides in the top half who have netted less than 50 times, and they rank 17th for the total of big chances created (71) and have squandered 46 of those, with a late 2-1 defeat to play-off-chasing rivals Bristol City in midweek proving hugely damaging to their promotion aims, as well as being a damning indictment of the club's current predicament.

18 draws from 41 games has meant that just shy of 44% of their encounters this season have ended as stalemates, compared to just 12 last season, with the current tally the second-biggest in the division - only Preston North End have more with 19.

Whilst some of these have proven to be very respectable points, with six of them coming against Leeds United, Burnley and Sheffield United, the Baggies' inability to beat sides they would have been considered favourites against is set to hold them back heading into the final five games, which include crucial home ties against Watford and Coventry City.