West Brom's dead balls no longer deadly

Out of the 43 occasions they found the net, 21 came from dead-ball situations.

One was a penalty, but there were no direct free-kicks; 20 goals were either nodded in or scrambled in from a well-placed whipped delivery.

The simple act of winning a corner became a potential pivotal moment in the match and the fans sensed it.

Whenever Gareth McAuley, Jonny Evans and Craig Dawson trotted up from the back like a trio of gnarled gladiators, excitement would build in the stands. But this season, that threat has been dulled.

Just three of Albion’s 12 goals in all competitions have come from dead balls, and one of those was Nacer Chadli’s direct free-kick against Leicester.

Tony Pulis is attempting to evolve the team’s threat from open play – but what he’s inadvertently done is remove one of his greatest assets.

Albion were the best in the league at set-pieces last season, arguably the best in the country.

Forget the debate about style and aesthetics, that unique threat is something to be celebrated, nurtured, and exploited, not forgotten.

Chris Brunt and Matt Phillips were the corner-takers last season, the men whose pin-point deliveries wreaked havoc in the opposition’s box, but neither have started any of the last three games, and it's left the team lacking.

Pulis defended his decision to drop the pair to the bench.

“Brunty has played in some of the games and Matty has as well and we haven’t scored off set-plays with those two playing,” he said. “I don’t think you can put it down to one thing.

“There’s a lot of small things that have come together and then the results don’t go your way.”

It’s not just as simple as leaving Brunt and Phillips out.

Gareth McAuley scored seven goals last season, but only started his first league game at the weekend.

That campaign was arguably an anomaly, when a high percentage flew in, and Pulis has a right to expect his other players to deliver decent corners.

But they're not coming in with the same venom, and at the moment, the shortfall is not being made up by the new approach.

With no win in nine, it might be time to get back to basics, reinstate Phillips and Brunt into the starting line-up, and rediscover the only differential Albion had over the rest of the league.

Then, at least if they're struggling from open play, they do have a talent to fall back on.