Slaven Bilic’s Championship leaders West Bromwich Albion spent a combined £12m on Charlie Austin and Kenneth Zohore.
Former West Brom boss Tony Pulis feels that Kenneth Zohore and Charlie Austin have both under-performed since sealing big-money moves to the Hawthorns over the summer, speaking on Sky Sports’ The Debate (12 February, 10.15pm).
If we had told you back in the summer that West Brom would be six points clear at the top of the Championship table in February, you’d have been forgiven for assuming that Zohore or Austin would be well in the race for the Golden Boot.
After all, these are two strikers who have an impressive track record in the second-tier. Zohore helped Cardiff seal promotion in 2018 and set The Baggies back a cool £8 million.
Austin, meanwhile, cost a further £4 million after falling out of favour at Southampton but he scored goals for fun at this level in the past for Burnley and QPR.
Altogether, however, the two strikers have managed just 11 league goals between them – fewer than the likes of Nahki Wells, Karlan Grant and Bryan Mbuemo produced all on their own.
“They spent a lot of money on the lad from Cardiff, who hasn’t done much really,” said Pulis, the former Baggies boss. “They bought the lad from Southampton too, Charlie. Again, he’s not really set it alight.
“But (Bilic) has brought legs in. He’s bought people who can take people out of the game. You need legs and he’s got that in midfield, who can win games for him.”
It was Hal Robson-Kanu who led the line in West Brom’s 2-1 win at Reading on Wednesday night.
And, while the experienced Welshman is hardly a natural goalscorer, he appears to be a perfect fit for Slaven Bilic’s system with his relentless work-rate and impressive link-play often getting the best out of the talented attackers around him.
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