Daryl Dike 'not on the floor' despite difficult West Brom start & injury

It can’t have been an easy introduction to life at West Bromwich Albion - and in England generally - for Daryl Dike.

Consider how the last few weeks have transpired for the young American international, and it’s safe to say he’s been pretty luckless; having arrived on New Year’s Day for a fee of £7million, he was immediately thrown into an intensive training programme in order to sharpen him up.

“ Valerien Ismael must be thinking ‘how’s your luck’,” Steve Bruce said on Friday, when reflecting on the situation he’s inherited. That’s very true, though talk of misfortune most certainly extends to the player himself.

He was, after all, meant to be the answer to Ismael’s problems, the player who was the missing piece of the philosophy jigsaw. For all of Albion’s strong xG numbers, they had been failing to convert - they still are - and Dike was going to be the man who transformed their fortunes.

There was pressure on his young shoulders. Remember he’s only 21, despite his USMNT status and his previous record under Ismael at Barnsley. He excited in his cameo at QPR, and quite frankly could’ve had a first half hat-trick against Peterborough before he pulled up.

The initial prognosis was that he’d be missing for a few weeks, but that would eventually be months. Upon his return, Dike will no longer have Ismael - the man who pushed so hard for his signing - on the touch-line issuing instructions.

He’ll return with even more pressure to deliver the goals to fire Albion to the play-offs, which for so long appeared a minimum expectation, but with a new man at the helm.

Things can’t have been easy for Dike at the beginning of 2022. He’s only just really started out at Albion having signed a four-and-a-half year contract, but