The sale of Shane Long to Hull City leaves West Brom with rather limited options up front. In terms of out and out strikers they will be left with Anelka, Vydra, Anichebe and Berahino. It’ll be interesting to see who Pepe Mel chooses to lead the line against Everton on Monday.
Saido Berahino is currently West Brom’s top scorer with 4 Premier League goals (he’s also scored 4 in the cups) and he’s only started 4 games so far this season. Mel could continue to use him as an impact player from the bench, this is where 3 of his goals have come from. This is in part due to his pace, which is used to exploit tired legs.
He works best playing from the left, or just off the striker, he is not ready to lead the line just yet. He’s lacks the experience to do so and is not strong enough, this is evident from the fact that he’s winning just 0.3 aerial duels on average per game.
He would be the perfect foil for Anelka, doing the running for the experienced striker, his movement creating space for Anelka to occupy and do what he does best. He clearly has talent, that’s clear from the goals he’s scored. His average pass accuracy is 85.5% and he’s averaging 2.2 shots per game (3), the most in the West Brom team.
He looks to have a bright future ahead of him and based on the statistics Berahino deserves to get chances under Mel and hopefully he can prove how good he is.
Statistics courtesy of WhoScored
Source: DSG
