Friday evening’s clash at Elland Road between promotion hopefuls West Bromwich Albion and Leeds United didn’t exactly go to plan.
With victory over manager Marcelo Bielsa’s side earlier in the campaign, confidence was high that we could give ourselves a boost in this clash to close the gap to the automatic spots, but with Leeds starting the far brighter and having opened the scoring within the first minute, it didn’t get any better as we fell to a heavy 4-0 defeat.
With plenty of frustrations coming to the fore and a fair amount of overreaction and criticism to what was a bad day in an otherwise pretty decent (albeit far from perfect – we all sees the problems in the side) season, one big talking point was the performance of former Academy graduate Tyler Roberts.
The 20-year-old, now Welsh international, departed The Hawthorns back at the end of the January 2018 transfer window for a reported £2.5million as we couldn’t secure him to a contract extension, and he departed with only one substitute showing to his name.
It hasn’t been perfect at Elland Road for him, but he is starting to show just how good he could be in the future and he did, of course, provide two assists on Friday to rub salt into the wounds.
Can’t believe season after season we keep giving Brunt and Morison contract extensions just because they’ve been here for a while, and had no issue with letting Roberts go last season
— Callum (@PrimeRomelu) March 2, 2019
How many ex academy players will come back to bite us. Part of me wants us to stay in this division to force us to clear out some of the old guard. Glad Roberts is flourishing just wish it was with us. #WBA
— Jack Gondola ???????? (@jackovongondala) March 2, 2019
And Roofe was out. Don't forget Izzy Brown the best player we let go who's only played 4 top flight games in 6 years
— WBA1958 (@terrywoneill) March 1, 2019
Tyler Roberts looked impressive this evening
is he another one who’s slipped the net
or did he just raise his game playing his former employees?#wba
— Matthew Fleet (@MAF79) March 1, 2019
Tyler Roberts! What a player and we thought he wasn’t good enough ????????????????????#wba
— Mike Robertson (@Baggieboy75Mike) March 1, 2019
We sold Roberts to pay for Sturridge to be injured for 2 months. ???????? #wba
— Jay (@jayb_1878) March 1, 2019
Tyler Roberts was fantastic for Leeds. Looked like everything we were missing #wba
— Hannah Taylor (@hannahtaylorx_) March 1, 2019
Tyler Roberts has been fantastic for them tonight! What a waste! #wba
— Tony 48% Smith (@RoystykinsWBA) March 1, 2019
Tyler Roberts man of the match, easily. Sold him last summer and used basically all the money to sign Daniel Sturridge on loan… Hahahahahaha #WBA
— Danny Wright (@dannyw_92) March 1, 2019
Tyler Roberts was well touted as a youngster and we sell him for 3 mil, tonight he’s tore us apart #wba
— Arry Gill (@ArryGill) March 1, 2019
That Tyler Roberts looks like a young player with promise that a club should hang on to…#wba
— Chris Hall (@CJHall83) March 1, 2019
Why an earth did we sell Tyler Roberts he’s controlling the game FFS #wba
— sam ainsbury (@samainsbury) March 1, 2019