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Joe Donnohue

West Brom have one key weakness Leeds United can exploit that will not be fixed overnight

It is little surprise that a side with one win in 15 games, and 30 goals conceded have been particularly susceptible to conceding shots from dangerous areas.

West Bromwich Albion have been one of the poorer outfits in the Premier League this year, but with the arrival of survival expert Sam Allardyce, could see their fortunes take a turn for the better in the coming weeks.

With just five points separating the Baggies and the prized 17th place in the Premier League table, a run of good form could catapult West Brom out of the danger-zone.

One area they will need to rectify immediately under Allardyce is their tendency to concede high value shots from dangerous areas. However, this is unlikely to be remedied overnight with much of their issues rooted in structural deficiencies at the back.

Bielsa on Leeds United's defending and Pascal Struijk's influence

In short, conceding shots from dangerous areas means a team is not doing a handful of things. They are leaving space for dangerous players because their defence is spread too wide, across the breadth of the pitch, and failing to press effectively enough.

As a result, the Baggies have conceded 16 goals from within the penalty area and an additional eight from inside the six-yard area. The fact they have conceded just twice from set-pieces indicate that the goals allowed from within the six-yard box originate from open play, under immense attacking pressure. Leeds are more than capable of flooding the box with multiple bodies.

West Bromwich Albion's average position map under against Liverpool (Opta)
West Bromwich Albion's average position map against Newcastle United earlier this month (Opta)

As seen from the average positions West Brom took up against Liverpool, they are a side who now intend to sit very deep in a low block.

Leeds are used to facing sides who employ such tactics from their past two years in the Championship, although many will not have been as well-drilled as an Allardyce team.

Compared with their average positions against Newcastle, the Baggies are notably allowing much less space in behind, however that did not prevent them conceding three against Aston Villa. Similarly, Liverpool were able to take eight shots from inside the penalty area, but mustered only 1.33 xG from those eight attempts, as per Infogol.

This demonstrates that while they still succumb to conceding shots in dangerous positions, they have more bodies in the way, and are beginning to press more effectively in closing shooters down.

Their game against Leeds comes too soon for any drastic changes to have been implemented by Allardyce. He has had at most five or six training sessions with his squad, and given they have had less than 48 hours to prepare for the visit of Bielsa's men, will not have had them back on the training ground in that time.

Leeds must hope that West Brom's familiar failings come to the fore tomorrow, but with their added resilience, Bielsa will know that his side must be clinical in order to avoid a similar fate to Liverpool or Manchester City.

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