'Hopefully they recognise...' West Brom encouraged to show more attacking side

The Baggies were among the lowest scorers in the Championship's top 10 last season despite occupying a play-off place for much of the campaign.

They slipped to a ninth-placed finish with a paltry scoring record of 57 goals in their 46 league fixtures, as only late pushers Blackburn and Millwall netted fewer.

Josh Maja, who did not kick a ball after January 4 due to injury, finished as top scorer with 12 goals - the third season on the spin Albion top tallies have been low after Brandon Thomas-Asante haul's of 12 and nine previously.

Johnson, the former midfielder and now club co-commentator, hopes for better and smarter firepower. He said: "We weren't consistently good enough, the away form wasn't good enough, we didn't put wins together and didn't score enough goals.

"We've talked about not scoring enough goals season after season now. I don't think we get forward enough.

"I watch a hell of a lot of football and teams that have been successful. When the ball is in wide areas, there is nobody in our box."

Former boss Tony Mowbray, who saw out the final three months of the campaign, felt around 70 goals were required to be in the play-off mix, but Albion fell well short. Mowbray was appointed to help sharpen up a forward line that did not score enough under the more defensively organised Carlos Corberan.

The Baggies lacked the goals to find wins on the road and were unable to tie together successive victories.

"You look at good sides, they are busting a gut to get in there and there are three or four, so the cross doesn't have to be that good, you hit areas," Johnson said.

"At times we beat two or three men to cross it and, sometimes I feel sorry for Mikey Johnston for instance, and there is Adam Armstrong in there. He's not going to win a header.

"Nobody gets advanced of the ball enough for me, and hopefully that's something that whoever takes over recognises and does. I think Tony recognised it but I think it was a bit too late for him to do anything about it.

"We need to be a little bit more dynamic going forward. I don't know if it's stemmed from Carlos being very organised, but just a bit more exciting going forward, take that gamble, cheat on the shoulder."

Albion owners Bilkul have identified Tottenham assistant coach Ryan Mason as their number one head coach target.