Forget Phillips: £2.25m-rated "top player" can reignite his WBA career under Bruce - opinion

Since signing for the club from Sheffield Wednesday in the summer, winger Adam Reach hasn’t made much of an impact as a West Bromwich Albion player.

However, with former Owls manager Steve Bruce now in charge at The Hawthorns, the 29-year-old may be able to reignite some of the form which warranted his move to the West Midlands in the first place.

With just one assist and no goals in 21 Championship appearances thus far, it has been a significantly quiet start to life at Albion for Reach.

Former Baggies manager Valerien Ismael, who was dismissed earlier this week before Bruce was appointed, had given the 29-year-old a handful of opportunities, with Reach playing the full 90 minutes on ten occasions. It just hasn’t clicked for the winger yet.

In fairness, West Brom as a collective haven’t been a free-scoring unit this season, netting just 34 goals in their 29 league games. Only two other teams in the top half of the Championship have scored fewer, with Bruce’s side sixth in the table.

However, the appointment of the former Newcastle boss, under whom Reach played at Sheffield Wednesday for four months in 2019, could help bring the best out of the forward. In Bruce’s 18 league matches in charge at Hillsborough, the former Wednesday player scored twice and registered four assists as the Owls side finished 12th in the Championship.

Although it wasn’t the most prolific return, Bruce will certainly be pleased to have a second opportunity to work with a player who has been known to perform at a decent level in this league and was once hailed as a “top player” by former Albion manager Tony Pulis.

There is also little doubt that the £2.25m-rated Reach can excel above the Baggies’ other options out wide with the likes of Matt