Forget Armstrong: West Brom could ease Maja blow by unleashing 18y/o star

Tony Mowbray would have walked away from West Bromwich Albion‘s last encounter in the Championship ultimately frustrated with the final outcome, even with a 1-1 draw falling into the bag come full-time.

West Brom had to rely on a Joe Bryan own goal to salvage a share of the points at the Den, with the Baggies’ attacking issues also getting the better of them against Blackburn Rovers the match before this trip to London, as a 2-0 loss was eventually swallowed.

Adam Armstrong has annoyingly drawn blanks across his last couple of second tier games, having bagged a goal on his West Brom debut, with the Southampton loanee looking out-of-sorts against Alex Neil’s determined hosts.

Armstrong’s poor performances

Arguably, Mowbray didn’t play to his former Blackburn favourite’s strengths against Millwall, having chucked him out to the left wing to ensure another new loanee in Will Lankshear led the line.

But, Armstrong has shone in this position before down the flanks during his peak at St. Mary’s, with 12 of his sublime 34 goal contributions during the regular season in the Championship last campaign coming from either the left or right.

Regardless, away from this instinctive opener on his Hawthorns debut, Armstrong has looked somewhat quiet in his fresh surroundings, with zero successful dribbles pulled off at the Den, alongside only mustering up one on-target effort.

With Lankshear also looking timid with just eight touches of the ball amassed, Mowbray could now find himself back at the drawing board working out what could work in attack moving forward, especially with Josh Maja still in the Baggies treatment room.

Known for getting the best out of some raw starlets at the Stadium of Light – with Jobe Bellingham and Chris Rigg springing to mind – the 61-year-old might be prepared to give this exciting 18-year-old a chance to impress, away from the current first team monotony.

West Brom’s in-house Maja replacement

The promotion hopefuls will hope their next Maja will soon come to the forefront, whether that is through giving an academy prospect a chance or the aforementioned Lankshear and Armstrong do end up firing in some big strikes to make a playoff spot more certain.

The first option could be more tantalising for Mowbray, considering the Baggies have had great success in recent years developing the likes of homegrown star Tom Fellows, as teenage sensation Eseosa Sule now waits in the wings.

Much like Maja – who has played out in France amongst lining up for a whole multitude of other outfits – Sule has had a varied upbringing in football, having previously been in the Celtic youth ranks as a Glasgow-born gem.

Now, he will hope he has found a home in West Brom where he can make waves in the senior picture, with this exciting brace against Liverpool earlier in the Premier League 2 season catching the eye.

Indeed, Sule is now up to five goals and two assists from 14 games this season playing in the U21 fold, taking his total overall goals haul in both the U21s and U18s to a promising 17 from 55 appearances.

With Daryl Dike also fragile coming back from a long-term injury up top, Mowbray could do far worse than to give the 18-year-old more opportunities, with one senior chance already gifted to him back in August when Carlos Corberan was still at the helm.

Mowbray will hope he can work his magic on Sule, with the explosiveness of an untested youngster perhaps catching second-tier defences cold as games become even tenser for the playoff candidates.

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