Bitesize Baggies: West Brom's vicious injury cycle, Fellows & a festive fixture rating

Everyone wanted to start the New Year with a victory in South Wales and it is disappointing that Albion slipped to a defeat, but for me the growing issues within the squad with regards to selection is more concerning than a loss.

In all honesty, Albion’s performance was far from their worst of the campaign, it wasn’t near Middlesbrough levels.

They had the best chances in the first period, and it was one lapse at the back that cost them.

But it’s the squad situation, and the worries over John Swift and Jed Wallace as well losing Jeremy Sarmiento that brings more concerns.

It feels that on a weekly basis now, Albion are suffering similar issues, and the question is how long can it go on for?

Wallace and Swift will both have scans this week, and fans need to have fingers and toes crossed because Albion cannot afford to lose them long term.

The vicious cycle that risks the fit players

As I’ve stated above, the concerns are very much about those who are nursing injuries and those who are out and unavailable.

But the more injuries Albion get, the more the strain is put on those who are fit and playing most week.

The majority of those who started at Swansea have started all of the festive fixtures.

Ideally, Corberan will have wanted to mix it up more than he has done, but he hasn’t had that luxury.

Certainly in the league, these players will be asked to go again and again during this period, but that strain runs the risk of causing more niggles and knocks.

It’s a vicious cycle but at the moment Albion have no other options but to run these risks.

Fellows able to take more responsibility

Even though the performance wasn’t dreadful, positives were at a premium down in South Wales.

One of the only ones was Tom Fellows.

Two years on from his last and only Albion start, he was thrown in from the off and he impressed.

Throughout the games, most attacks that Albion had were through the wide man.

His work for Brandon Thomas-Asante's massive chance was tremendous. He had a half chance created for himself and was a danger from the right.

With Diangana now off to AFCON and Sarmiento returning to Brighton, Fellows is, until any re-reinforcements come in, a first choice wide man.

It’s almost his spot to lose in the coming weeks, but he impressed in this one and hopefully he is the shining light to come from this difficult period.

6.5/10 from Albion over the festive fixtures

My pre-festive prediction was that Albion would get eight points from 12 - which, maybe at the start, was optimistic.

It looked even more optimistic after Boro, where Albion were absolutely dreadful, but big back to back wins turned that around before the disappointment in South Wales.

So, how have they rated in this four game run? If you worked it out points wise and compared it to a rating out of ten then you would say 5/10, but I think there is context to it.

On today, as we have said a number of times, personnel and availability is one issue, and a lack of options to bring on to influence a game. Even against a side 17th in the table, that gives Albion an issue.

Leeds and Norwich were top displays and top wins, while Boro was just a drab and awful display.

So, for me, given those reasons, I’d say Albion's overall performance would be just above average, although on paper it does look disappointing.

We all probably wished tor more, but when you look at it and reflect, and look at where it leaves us while dealing with issues, it’s not the worst return.