West Brom talking points: Comfortable or cautious as Albion held by Leeds

After last week's stunning performance against QPR, Albion had a strong hold in the game for large parts at The Hawthorns, as fans went into it with a renewed optimism.

Two big chances came in the second half - but Albion couldn't take them and had to settle for a point.

Jonny Drury looks at three talking points from the game.

A comfortable contrast to last season

When Albion took on the league's 'big boys' last season, they followed a very similar pattern.

Albion would sit off, let the other side have the ball and hit on the break, even at home. And it worked quite well.

Against Leeds in last season's home fixture, Albion took the lead and sat off before defending doggedly.

But in this game, I think we saw a different, more confident Albion, happy to go and dominate the ball and dictate the pace of the game.

Now, Leeds are no doubt weaker than last season but they still have a strong side for this division, and arguably Albion are weaker than they were last season.

The more time goes on, the more Carlos Corberan puts his stamp on Albion, and now into his second full season, it looks as if we will see a more possession based side, even against the big boys.

Too conservative?

Having lost players and had a tough opening game and cup clash, Leeds were poor, there is no denying it.

However, were Albion a little bit too conservative?

They dominated the ball and got into good areas in the first half, without creating chances.

But at times it looked as if they were playing with three centre-backs, with Tom Fellows playing out on the left as a wing back.

That tactic looked to be used to nullify the pace of Dan James, and it worked.

But what it also did was sacrifice Fellows on the right hand side, where he can get past full backs with ease and cross.

Even though Grant and Furlong did well down the right for Albion, Fellows brings you that added quality.

Albion missed that today, and maybe it was down to being just a bit too cautious.

The striking back-up option

As the weeks in the transfer window ebb away, the need for a second striker to challenge Josh Maja becomes more evident.

Maja did okay in this one, but didn't get the service or chances he thrived on at QPR.

When he was brought off, Corberan turned to winger Lewis Dobbin to go and lead the line rather than Devante Cole.

Now, Cole hasn't played a lot at the level, but it shows again that the need for a second striker is so important, just to give Albion a different dimension.

Corberan wants three or four new faces in, but if Albion are to keep this level of performance up to pick up results, for me that has to be a priority area.