West Brom's bid for an automatic promotion spot took a hit last night, as they suffered a 2-1 loss to Swansea despite initially taking the lead.

The Baggies found themselves in front early on, with Karlan Grant bagging again to take his tally to six for the season in the Championship so far. After holding on well and continuing to threaten in the first half, it fell apart in the second.

Swansea's own in-form man Joel Piroe scored the goal to bring his side back into the game and with the Swans continuing to push, Jamie Patterson finally put his club in front with less than ten minutes to go.

Valerien Ismael's team couldn't find an equaliser and ultimately ended up coming away with nothing.

It'll be a hard one for West Brom and their fans to take but the club remain third in the table and have the chance to try and get back to winning ways against Bristol City on Saturday. Here though, are three things we learnt about the Baggies after the loss.

 

 

West Brom can't get complacent or rest on their laurels

The Baggies were lively from the off and bagged as early as the first minute through Karlan Grant. They attacked Swansea from the outset and it paid off, with the club taking a 1-0 lead into half-time.

In fact, Swansea had an xG rate of just 0.02 in that entire first 45 minutes and it showed just how on top of the game the away side were.

It's after the break where it all went wrong for the club.

They allowed Swansea to get more into the game and it was then the home side who dominated. The Baggies created a lot less and allowed the Swans to create a lot more and get more time on the ball. It ultimately led to not one but two goals being conceded - and cost them the three points.

If they want to remain title and promotion contenders, then they can not get complacent in games. They have to keep pushing and make sure they wrap up the three points or they risk repeats of what happened against Swansea.

The Baggies need to get the ball to their strikers and main threats more

West Brom are blessed with a good standard of player in their attacking areas this season. Karlan Grant has proven he can bag goals regularly, Callum Robinson has done similar for them and for Preston, as has Jordan Hugill and Matty Phillips already has three from the wing this campaign so far.

The issue against Swansea was that they didn't really get the chance to do much or affect the game at all. Apart from Grant's early opener, he had no other shot all game and had the least touches of any outfield player to complete the game. With a player as dangerous as him on the pitch, you can't afford to have him not see the ball enough.

It was a similar story for Robinson, who didn't have a shot all game and neither did the player that replaced him in Hugill. Neither of them had many touches of the ball either and the forward who did have the more shots and touches - Matty Phillips - failed to make them count.

The Baggies then need to work on ensuring their exciting attacking players get in the game more, get on the ball more and ultimately challenge the opposition keeper more. If they can, then the goals will surely flow from what is a superb forward line.

West Brom should be more careful in possession

The final point to be made is that when the Baggies did have the ball, they were often quite wasteful and not as calculated and careful with it.

They had a much worse pass success rate than Swansea with 61% compared to 80% and nearly half the amount of accurate long balls too despite having more crosses than the Swans as well.

It means that even when they did manage to get the ball, they perhaps panicked a bit more and were not as composed as usual with the ball at their feet. They'll have to work on making sure that their passes count when they do get the ball because if they allow Swansea as much possession as they had and then don't capitalise when they finally get the ball, it can make for miserable nights like the one on Wednesday.