West Bromwich Albion vs Sheffield United
On December 8th we visited the Hawthorns for the first time to watch West Bromwich Albion take on Sheffield United in the Championship. We made the trip to the black country during the weekend of ‘storm darragh’ and drove through driving rain and wind to watch two championship sides, both of whom have hopes of achieving promotion to the Premier League this season. As one of the Football League’s twelve founding members in 1888, West Bromwich Albion are a club steeped in history, with most of the clubs success coming between the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The club was formed in 1878 by a group of young factory workers at the George Salter Springs factory, and since then they have won five FA cups, one Division One (now the Premier League) trophy along with one League cup. In the clubs more recent history, they have been ‘Boing-ing’ their way in-between the Championship and the Premier League after relegation in 2017/18 following an 8 year top flight stay was then followed by promotion two seasons later in 2019/20, only to be relegated back to the Championship in 2020/21 where they have remained ever since.
On the 26th October 2022, Carlos Corberán was appointed as the clubs head coach, following his sacking from Olympiacos earlier that year. Corberán made his name in English football initially after he was appointed as assistant manager at Leeds United under the crazed genius that is Marcelo Bielsa. The fact that Bielsa saw something special in him and his coaching abilities speaks volumes and that was proven in his stint at Huddersfield where he spent no money on transfer fees in the summer of 2021, bringing players in only on free transfers and loans and still managing to guide them to a play-off final where they narrowly lost to Nottingham Forest. Corberán’s style of play is direct but places an influence on fluidity and constant rotation of players taking up spaces on the pitch. Watching Corberán’s side, you can definitely see the influence of Marcelo Bielsa and it’s clear that Corberán has taken inspiration from the man who made him his apprentice at Leeds. At West Brom, he came in with the club sat in 24th position in the Championship after the first sixteen games of the season. He managed to guide them to a very respectable 9th place finish in the circumstances, playing a similar style to the one that he adopted at Huddersfield.
The expectation this season from the West Brom fans is for the club to make progress on that 9th place finish and to reach the play-offs to give themselves a shot at promotion. Going into this match they had been on a sort of remarkable yet distinctly unremarkable run of 10 games unbeaten, with 9 of those games being drawn and the only victory coming against Hull City. This form still had them within a touching distance of the play-off positions but also left fans frustrated, however the lack of defeats shows that they are clearly still doing a lot of things well. Sheffield United have been flying this season and they were confident of another positive result, while also understanding that they were coming up against the draw specialists who would be tough to beat.
One of the key players that stood out to us on the day was Torbjørn Heggem, a twenty five year old left footed centre back signed from Norweigan side Brommapojkarna in the summer. The towering defender played well throughout the game, especially impressing with his ability to win aerial duels and his comfortability on the ball. It was Heggem who opened the scoring after 24 minutes after heading home brilliantly from an in swinging corner played in by Alex Mowatt.
However, later on in the half Sheffield United showed why they are where they are in the league and scored twice in two minutes to turn the game on it’s head. Both goals were crafted down the left hand side with Harrison Burrows causing mayhem for the West Brom defence, first setting up Callum O’Hare and then Tyreese Campbell with quality low crosses that the Baggies were unable to deal with. Supporters near us were exasperated with the way West Brom had been cut open and eluded to the fact this had been their best performance of the season, yet they still found themselves behind at the break. The two quick goals pointed to a slightly soft underbelly of West Brom despite all the quality flowing attacking play from Karlan Grant, Mikey Johnston and Josh Maja in particular.
West Brom weren’t deterred in the second half though and came out strongly as they did in the first half. The attacking intent was clear to see and it came to fruition when Johnston, who put in a strong performance on the left, cut in and played a superb ball to Josh Maja who found Tom Fellows on the right wing to cut in and shoot. Fellows got a large slice of luck as the ball deflected and looped up and over George Cooper in the goal to give West Brom a much deserved equaliser. West Brom kept the momentum and found themselves in several promising attacking positions but failed to find a winner in the latter stages of the game. Overall, it was a thoroughly entertaining game to watch as a neutral and we enjoyed our first trip to the Hawthorns, the atmosphere and vibe inside the stadium that we experienced was friendly and positive.
Another draw was slightly frustrating for the home supporters considering the amount of draws that they have seen this season but it was largely accepted that they were playing against a very good championship side and the players were given a good reception as they walked off the pitch.
As I’m writing this two days before Christmas, West Brom have played three games since the Sheffield United result and have beaten Coventry at home, lost to Watford at Vicarage road before getting another three points yesterday after winning at the Hawthorns against Bristol City. Those two wins were much needed and see the Baggies in 7th but level on points with Middlesbrough in 6th. The Christmas fixtures see them play Derby County on boxing day before the return fixture of this game being played at Bramall Lane on the 29th December. We will be following with intrigue to see where West Brom finish this season, the foundations are certainly there for Corberán to guide this team to the play-offs and potentially, promotion, but amongst the madness of the Championship, nothing is guaranteed.
