Premier League 2016-17 preview, predictions: No. 15, West Brom
With the 2016-17 Premier League season kicking off this weekend, FC Yahoo is rolling out previews for all 20 teams. We’ll be working our way up from the bottom of our predicted table, all the way to the champions.
Last season: Tony Pulis managed a team for 38 games. Those games were mostly boring. That team stayed in the Premier League. And the world is round.
What’s changed: Not much! The baseball-capped Pulis is still around to grind out results. He apparently wants to sign Watford forward Odion Ighalo, but so far, the only addition to a sturdy yet uninspiring squad has been former QPR winger Matt Phillips. The dark cloud looming over the Hawthorns is the Saido Berahino situation. There are reportedly multiple offers on the table, and the 23-year-old attacker is entering the final year of his contract.
FC YAHOO TAKE
Joey Gulino: West Brom is nothing if not predictable. The Baggies will cede possession, and play boom ball, and manufacture points — and stay in the top flight. Pulis’ men are as well-drilled as any team in the league, and even if Berahino leaves, there are worse ways to score than playing through Salomon Rondon and Rickie Lambert, who will almost assuredly be more productive than he was last season. The schedule features several pockets of tough fixtures, which means there will be long stretches where West Brom can reasonably expect to pile up points. Pulis has never been relegated as a player or manager. Don’t expect that to change this year.
Henry Bushnell: There’s this mystique around Pulis and the teams he manages that reeks of the one that followed Roberto Martinez and Wigan for a while. Everybody knows the team isn’t any good; but there’s an assumption it’ll find a way to stay up anyway. Unfortunately, that’s not sound reasoning. Wigan eventually found that out. There’s a little more substance to the assumption when it comes to West Brom and Pulis, but with an aging midfield and an attack that tallied just four times over the final nine games of last season (and just 34 times overall), the Baggies and their backers could come to a similar realization.
Bookmakers say: Point total over/under: 40.5 | Title odds: 1500/1 | Relegation odds: 9/4
FC YAHOO PREDICTIONS
Shahan Ahmed: 16 | Ryan Bailey: 11 | Alex Baker: 14 | Henry Bushnell: 18 | Joey Gulino: 13 | Joe Lago: 14 | Leander Schaerlaeckens: 16 | Average: 14.6 (15th)
More Previews
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