West Bromwich Albion battled to yet another victory last Monday but have little time to revel in their achievements as they face another tricky challenge today.
Winning four Championship games on the trot could fool Carlos Corberan’s men into a false sense of security as they host a team below them in the table, but Rotherham United will pose a tough challenge, as most do in this division.
Having lost their most recent match, the Millers boast a recent win over promotion-chasing Sheffield United, which proves that they have an upset in them.
The Baggies can take solace in the fact that they successfully navigated a tough game at Sunderland, thanks to a host of inspired substitutions from Corberan.
Despite having 56% of the ball against the Black Cats, West Brom struggled to break down Tony Mowbray’s resilient outfit and fell behind from the penalty spot.
It took the introduction of some real quality to shift the momentum in their favour, with substitute Tom Rogic pulling out a moment of magic to curl the ball home with the outside of his left boot to make it 1-1. Having equalised, it offered the Baggies enough impetus to push on for the winner, which they grabbed through Daryl Dike with eight minutes to go.
Should Tom Rogic start today?
As he looks to record five straight wins for Albion, Corberan is best served by starting his Australian maestro from the beginning this time.
This has not been Rogic’s first fine performance since his summer move to The Hawthorns, as the 30-year-old boasts an average Sofascore rating of 6.81.
His former Celtic boss Ange Postecoglu has been full of praise for the midfielder in the past, using one occasion to laud an immense all-round performance by stating: “He was brilliant. Especially at the start when we needed that little bit of extra special qualities that he brings.
“His ball to Jota was outstanding, his general play was really good. Yeah I’m pleased for him, he had a super game.”
Despite averaging just 27 minutes per game so far for West Brom, the Australian talisman has offered energy and quality in his short cameos which have often helped his team.
He is averaging a sensational two tackles per match despite his limited game-time, and his 0.4 key passes per match (via Sofascore) would increase exponentially should he feature more heavily.
For the Baggies to give themselves the best possible chance of yet another win, which could see them climb as high as 11th, Rogic simply must start today, as he could give Rotherham nightmares with his pedigree and attacking play.
