Somebody is going to need to check in on Jumbalaya, because Dike will begin the season as a substitute: Here’s our first line-up of the 2022/23 campaign! 📋COYB! 💚💛#WBA— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) July 30, 2022
Dike has been a handful in the last few minutes. Forced a defender into a bad decision, bodied the defender on the end line, won the ball, and hit a shot with a narrow angle into the side netting.
He is gonna play lot of minutes. He is a force out there. Looks gassed already. Passing a bit slow, but the Dike effect is undeniable.
Wanted to see more of him. Bruce probably hoped that he would wear down a back line then throw Dike in there to run at them. Besides the long ball, nothing really working to West Broms advantage in Dikes minutes. Long season and I think Dike will put a few in the back of the net.
Big man looked good. A couple loose passes where he wasn't on the same page as his team but nice debut, certainly caused havoc for the opposition and created danger!
True. But when he’s not getting service, he will defend and pressure defenders who will surely cough it up with a hint of his physical presence. That’s bound to produce a goal or two.
Let him run onto long balls or plant him in and around the box. Big guy looked gas in his short stint. Will take a bit to get him going.
Their fans seem happy with his debut on their forum. That was a tricky away match to start the season among a couple teams that are aiming for a promotion campaign or at least playoffs. The guy Swift looks like he could form a nice partnership with Dike. Most West Brom's problems in this match seemed to come from their fullbacks so hopefully Dike plays in some fun 3-2 wins this year.
Steffen and Dike exchange shirts after #Boro and #WestBrom ends in a draw #USMNT 👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/znA089Ctfv— Megan Swanick (@Meg_Swanick) July 30, 2022
Yes that was actually a fairly entertaining well played match. Maybe the top teams in the Championship are better than in MLS but the depth in the Championship is rubbish comparatively.
Championship has much better overall depth. Wages are way higher so they attract better talent. It’s fairly straightforward.
That's actually not unusual. Most leagues have a few top teams while the bottom is pretty bad. MLS is a regular US league where there is a lot of parity. Mix in with a lot of travel, wildly different climates and grass and turf fields and every team has a lot of chances for points.