The first match preview back for the Albion since our play off heartbreak at Southampton at the end of last season meaning we start our 4th successive Championship campaign on Saturday in London as we face Queens Park Rangers.
We welcome you back to Baggies Talk and hope you’ve had a great summer but also not a great end to Euro 2024 where England lost in both successive Euro finals. The season actually starts for the Baggies on Saturday with two new signings who joined us in this week as Gianluca Frabotta from Juventus and Lewis Dobbin who recently joined Midlands rivals Aston Villa as come on loan for the season.
Pre Season was not the best for the Baggies as I went to both Cambridge and Birmingham over the weekend and watched us lose 1-0 to Cambridge and 4-1 to Birmingham. With Pre-Season now come to an end it is now time to focus on a new season and the first game against Queens Park Rangers.
Coming into the opening game of the season we never really get a result on the opening day as I remember the only win we did get on the opening day was a 2-1 win against Nottingham Forest in the Championship and the last few seasons we took draws against Middlesbrough and Bournemouth and a defeat to Blackburn last season. I think it would be a difficult game especially being away from home given how our away record is going.
Player To Watch – QPR
With QPR who have got Sam Field still in their ranks, I would not be going for Field on Saturday to be the player to watch. QPR have recently signed a striker from Swiss Super League side Lugano and to me looks a great signing with player is going to be Žan Celar.
QPR have made great addition to get Žan Celar to London over the last few weeks and I don’t know why we could of tried to get him into the Baggies as we are looking for a striker ourselves. He was the Swiss Super League top goalscorer last season and has scored 40 goals overall for Lugano in 95 appearances over the last 3 seasons.
As most of the opposition strikers score past us away from home pretty much of last season and Alfie May who joined Blues over the summer scored a brace against us in a Pre-Season Friendly on Saturday, I expect Žan Celar to make an impact but I hope we keep him quiet on Saturday afternoon however I predict he could score past us and be another striker who score against us away from home.
Where some of our defenders have gone over the last few weeks with Conor Townsend joining Ipswich and Cedric Kipre left on a free to join French side Reims. Can our new additions in Torbjørn Heggem and Gianluca Frabotta make decent debuts to stop Žan Celar scoring on his debut?
Player To Watch- West Brom
Player to watch for the Baggies against QPR is going to be Darnell Furlong, the ex-QPR right back was one of the best players for us last season and he is looking to be staying for another season.
With him one of the best players in defence, he can also cause some attacking problems that can help the likes of Tom Fellows and Lewis Dobbin and last season he may of made one of the best goals of the season when he scored against Watford.
Could he do the same against QPR and help us secure an opening day victory?
My Line Up V QPR
My line up maybe different to others, I would give new boys Heggem and Frabotta their debuts in defence, with Diakite starting in midfield alongside Alex Mowatt, In attack I would give Lewis Dobbin his first start in the wing with Tom Fellows and John Swift just behind Karlan Grant where I would start him as lone striker.
Predictions V QPR
Predictions for the first game of the season when it is away from home is never easy despite our opening day record all I can remember from our opening day wins was a 3-0 win over Liverpool and 2-1 over Nottingham Forest.
However, when we do lose our opening days we do end the season quite well we lost our first two games last season and everyone thought we could be going down but still finished 5th and we did lose 4-1 to Walsall in 2003-04 season and went on to secure automatic promotion with Norwich that year.
Now onto the prediction, I think it would be nothing into the game in the first 40 minutes but I think QPR would get a penalty right before half time with debut striker Žan Celar scoring right from the spot to give QPR the lead at half time bringing us 1-0 down.
Second half, we would start better and I predict we would equalise in the first 10 minutes with Karlan Grant scoring to make it 1-1, I don’t think there would be much happening throughout the second half but I think we would be the better team throughout but would fail to win the game. I am going for a 1-1 draw for the opening game of the season.
Prediction: QPR 1-1 West Brom
Goalscorer for QPR: Žan Celar (Penalty)
Goalscorer for West Brom: Karlan Grant
A 1-1 draw to start the season, I would take a draw right now especially after our poor pre season and our away record in the Championship is not been at best of times. Lets find out and see what happens on Saturday but my prediction a 1-1 draw wouldn’t be too bad coming out of London this weekend.
Lets go out there and back the Baggies!
Prediction League on Baggies Talk
I’m also starting a new prediction league on Baggies Talk, all you have to do is comment the score below to enter and if you get the score right you get 3 points, or the correct result if you back us to win, draw or lose you get 1 point, or the wrong result you get 0 points.
Want to Join- Comment the score below!