West Bromwich Albion are experiencing a crisis of confidence near the top of the Championship at the moment, with wins beginning to dry up for Carlos Corberan’s men.
The Baggies have only lost two games this season from a total of 13 league clashes, but draws are now beginning to become commonplace, with five appearing on the bounce.
The Spaniard occupying the Hawthorns dug-out will hope his team can break out of this sticky patch of form soon, well aware that Josh Maja is one player that can pick up points on his own with his instinctive finishing crucial to how the Baggies operate going forward.
Maja's form this season
Maja is now onto eight Championship goals for the season after cleverly flicking an effort over the line against Luton Town last time out, as his team had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road.
Without the former Sunderland man leading the line, the Baggies would be far worse off, with Maja actually scoring over half of his side’s goals for the season, as West Brom’s overall league goal haul only stands at an unspectacular 14.
This chance was converted against the Hatters despite only having 0.2 xG attached to it, as the super confident 25-year-old continues to possess the Midas touch in front of goal whenever his team need him to come up trumps.
Amazingly, however, West Brom waved goodbye to one clinical ace all the way back in 2011 who has since gone on to prove himself as a deadlier attacker than Maja far away from England.
Ex-West Brom player is now even deadlier than Maja
Most fans of Premier League football might have forgotten about the existence of ex-Arsenal youngster Carlos Vela, with the Mexican attacker never quite living up to the hype that surrounded him at the Emirates Stadium once upon a time.
Vela would only go on to score 11 times for the Gunners in the first team ranks from 62 appearances, before very much coming out of his shell when moving to Real Sociedad permanently, where he would be labelled as a “special” talent by David Moyes when the Scotsman was briefly in charge of the Spanish club.
Arsenal
62
11
UD Salamanca
26
5
CA Osasuna
33
3
West Brom
8
2
Real Sociedad
250
73
LAFC
189
93
He was equally unmemorable for the Baggies on loan during the 2010/11 campaign, with Vela only managing to score twice for his short-term employers from eight appearances, before eventually transforming into a goal machine with his later set of clubs.
Staggeringly, since walking away from West Brom as a wide-eyed attacker still very much learning the ropes, a far more confident and assured Vela has bagged 166 career goals on the books of both Sociedad and LAFC, with the Cancun-born forward still a hit in America to this day.
To add further context, Maja – who has experienced significantly fewer games across his playing days to date – has only 71 career strikes next to his name.
In 2019, the 5 foot 10 attacker even broke records playing in Los Angeles, with 34 goals in a single MLS season the highest total ever managed by a player in the league, until Lionel Messi strolled into the American game for Inter Miami.
Still, Vela – who is now 35 years of age – will hope he can keep up these sensational performances for LAFC even as his retirement date begins to creep up on him, with the one-time West Brom loanee putting pen to paper on a new deal with his current employers in September to stay put.
Nobody who watched the 35-year-old during the infancy of his playing days at West Brom would have expected him to turn into such a potent goal machine, with Maja another that has had to battle against the weight of expectation much like the South American, before coming into his own at the Baggies.
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