West Brom debrief: Albion’s style and positions draw interest after positive start
Albion kick-started their home campaign with a stalemate against fellow promotion hopefuls Leeds, which earned a creditable point.
It was not the most memorable of Hawthorns openers but the hosts earned some plaudits for largely out-playing the visitors, who missed out on promotion at the final hurdle last term.
We’ve had a look at some of the talking points as Carlos Corberan’s side made it four points from a possible six to start the new Championship season.
Corberan’s ‘dominance’
The home head coach described his side’s performance as dominant against his former employers.
There was good reason for that. Sixty per cent possession against Leeds – an admittedly weak Leeds struggling to find their feet this term – is good going, and perhaps on the evidence of two games so far this term a change to a more ball control ethos from Corberan this term.
Other stats back this up. Albion completed almost 200 more passes and just shy of 100 more passes in the opposition’s half than Leeds managed in the home side’s territory.
It is obviously about what you do with the ball though and as Corberan admitted there was nothing to separate those. Both clubs registered an identical expected goals (xG) of 0.70 with exactly the same xG stats from open play and set-piece attacks. Both had one shot on target from eight total shots.
