As Liverpool look to bounce back from poor recent form this week, I spoke to Josh from West Brom focused website The Baggies’ Way. They can be found on twitter @TheBaggiesWay.
To start off, can you tell us about the main dangers West Brom can pose to Liverpool on Saturday, and who you think the real danger-men for your side are?
In terms of attacking dangermen you can’t look past Saido Berahino at the moment. His pace and intelligent movement could be a real threat on the counterattack against a team like you. He has matured and come on eons since last year and I think he might even be the highest scoring English player in the Premier League currently? People are even calling for him to be called up into the England squad (slightly prematurely in my opinion).
That said I think our real weapon is our new found defensive stability. After a lay off, Joleon Lescott has come into the team and been immense alongside the improving Craig Dawson. Our new full-backs are looking solid too, Sebastian Pocognoli particularly has been playing out of his skin. I think you will struggle to carve us open more than last year.
How is Liverpool loanee Andre Wisdom getting on at the Hawthorns?
He did come in for a bit of early criticism from Albion faithful, but I think he is showing great potential, and that culminated in very impressive performances against Spurs and Burnley over the past week.
You can tell he is growing in confidence with every game that he plays – and he has been ever present in the Premier League this season. I think by the end of the campaign you’ll have yourselves a solid Premier League level right back or centre back- though I am not sure he has shown enough to suggest he can break into your team.
My one complaint is his physique – which of course is not his fault. He seems a bit slow and lumbering to be a right back and a bit short to be a centre-back. He doesn’t quite look natural on the ball yet either. But I am sure that will come with time.
Having seen an upturn in form recently, which resulted in 3 wins last week, 2 in the Premiership and one in a dramatic League Cup tie, do you feel confident ahead of Saturday?
I don’t think as a supporter of a team like West Brom you ever go to Anfield feeling “confident”, but I see no reason why we can’t give you a very good match. After a difficult start Alan Irvine seems to be slowly getting people onside, and given that you aren’t in the best of form and we are riding somewhat of a wave of momentum I think we will pose a difficult challenge for you to overcome on Saturday.
The West Brom schedule has been varied this year, with no one run of difficult games together yet, more a case of a couple of tough matches in amongst more winnable ones. From this current point, what are your overall expectations of West Brom this year?
You say that, but four of our next seven games are Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, so our run of “tough fixtures” is coming now really.
I really don’t know what to think. I came into the season thinking that we would be right down there, and despite a couple of early decent performances our losses to Swansea and Everton seemed to confirm this. However, our recent little surge has sent us flying up the table and sent a new surge of optimism around the Hawthorns. Make no mistake- I think that we will probably still struggle, but we are one of about 10 teams that could finish anywhere between 8th and 18th in truth.
With the much-discussed point of Champions League fixtures negatively affecting domestic league form in mind, do you feel that Saturday is a good time to play Liverpool?
Well this is pertinent in the sense that we played Spurs the other week just after their Europa League tie away in Serbia, and to say that they were flat is to be kind to them- though they did rotate their team completely, so I’m not sure they have that much of an excuse!
I feel it might be a good time to play Liverpool in the sense that you are off colour slightly, and I guess your top players may be fatigued because of the travel- but I think that it can be slightly exaggerated as an issue. At the end of the day the top players now are in effect top athletes too, and they can deal with the travel and mid-week games more than most give them credit for in my opinion. I’m looking forward to the game because we have been playing well and you haven’t been at your imperious best recently more than anything!
The corresponding fixture last year was obviously settled by a brilliant performance from a certain Uruguayan…do you feel buoyed by the current lack of options up front for Liverpool, particularly with the possible absence of Daniel Sturridge?
I would certainly be more buoyed if Sturridge is out- because I really do think he is a top, top player. Sturridge or no Sturridge, you do have the attacking options to hurt us – even with our in form defence. Balotelli always seems to play well against us, and players like Sterling and Coutinho are very dangerous between the lines. Even your new additions in attacking midfield like Markovic and Can would hope to be able to inflict some damage on us I would imagine.
Whilst I think you will miss Suarez this season, I think you probably have the attacking prowess to hope to beat teams like us (on paper at least)- and even with your perceived lack of options, I am travelling to Liverpool on Saturday fully expecting to face a quality Liverpool attack.
When looking at the current Liverpool squad, who do you feel poses your side the most threat on Saturday?
As I said, I really like Raheem Sterling as a player. I really do see him as the future of English football (alongside Saido Berahino and Craig Dawson, of course). He is such a clever, graceful and skilful player and I really think we will struggle to deal with him.
Finally, can we get a score prediction from you?
It’s a difficult one to call in honesty. My gut says that you are due to give out a thrashing and we are due a bit of a fall after our good week- however I have been encouraged enough by our recent form to think that we will give you more than a decent match. I’ll go for a 3-1 Liverpool win, but I don’t think you are going to coast to victory by any means.
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Big thanks to Josh for a perspective that was perhaps more positive about us than any of our fans recently! Again, you can follow his site on Twitter: @TheBaggiesWay. In terms of my predictions…I guess I’ll be positive again, for all the use that it is right now. 3-1 Liverpool, fancy an Adam Lallana goal too.
