Premier League club West Brom head north to Blackpool on Saturday for a third-round FA Cup fixture against the Seasiders. The Baggies’ return to the Premier League hasn’t gone well and manager Sam Allardyce will eye the FA Cup as a potential springboard to further success.
Neil Critchley’s Blackpool are winless in three straight matches in League One. They have lost back-to-back fixtures going into the game on Saturday, but will be set on a giant killing this weekend in the cup.
Before Saturday's clash at @BlackpoolFC, check out a selection of our third-round strikes in the #EmiratesFACup 🎯 pic.twitter.com/lluLQnPtIZ— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) January 7, 2021
Before Saturday's clash at @BlackpoolFC, check out a selection of our third-round strikes in the #EmiratesFACup 🎯 pic.twitter.com/lluLQnPtIZ
Saturday’s match between Blackpool and West Brom at Bloomfield Road is one of those slippery fixtures for the higher ranked club. In this case, West Brom are the team that could be in danger of an upset.
Allardyce’s team are winless in their last six league matches. Four of those six ended in defeated and back-to-back matches finished in losses for West Brom. They have scored a mere 11 Premier League goals while allowing a league leading 39.
Blackpool have tallied 20 goals for and 23 against. The Tangerines are just five points off of the League One playoff places. Critchley will be focused on making the top six in the division and could use the weekend to get players fit by playing fringe squad members.
Although West Brom have the Premier League’s worst defence, an average of 2.3 goals conceded per match, they will be a step up from the quality of teams Blackpool play in League One. Blackpool failed to score in two of their last three League One matches.
Allardyce could have forward Hal Robson-Kanu back from injury. The striker has been healing an arm injury that forced him to undergo an operation. The manager won’t have Karlan Grant nor Conor Townsend due to their respective injuries.
The West Brom manager stated that he will make changes to the squad for the FA Cup third round. The priority for West Brom is to rescue their Premier League campaign and not to advance deep into the FA Cup.
Frozen out players Charlie Austin, Cedric Kipre, Kamil Grosicki and Filip Krovinovic could all play on Saturday at some point. The quartet were fringe players under form boss Slaven Bilic and Allardyce.
It is likely that West Brom are attempting to recruit attacking players to improve their goal scoring record in all competitions. Even with the Premier League’s third-lowest goals total, West Brom should get a win on Saturday in the FA Cup third round versus Blackpool.
The match should be low scoring with West Brom eking out a victory in the end. The match should see under 2.5 goals scored.