Chris Lepkowski Column: West Brom players testing Di Matteo
Roberto Di Matteo
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But both he and Cech need to consider the team’s situation, not just their own.
Albion are in second spot. They have just scored seven times in two games and only Cardiff have scored more Championship goals.
Koren can, of course, play on the flanks – but so can Cech, Chris Brunt and Jerome Thomas.
Cech, meanwhile, is unlucky to find Thomas in decent form and Brunt back in action, a player who brings so much to Albion’s attacking play, more so than Cech I’d argue.
Perhaps he has more scope for complaint with the left-back situation.
He was kept out of the side last season because Paul Robinson was such a dominant personality in Albion’s dressing room that Mowbray felt unable to leave him out of the side, regardless of his form.
Joe Mattock has taken time settling in so you could make an argument for Cech’s inclusion this season. But then Cech has never really excelled at left-back, apart from just once perhaps. Mattock, meanwhile, has shown signs of progress more recently. He’s 19 years old and will improve.
Cech’s determination to represent Slovakia at their first major tournament is understandable. But the World Cup is still seven months away.
It also suggests a lack of faith in himself. Surely if he’s good enough to play every week then he will do so – I certainly don’t recall Cech performing outstandingly during Albion’s 1-0 defeat to Swansea, his last start for the club. He was substituted at half-time.
Di Matteo has enough to deal with. He’s adjusting to a new club and the expectation that comes with that.
He could do with all of his players lending their support, not least his senior ones.
