Kevin Phillips sends plea to West Brom following player arrival

Former West Bromwich Albion striker Kevin Phillips believes his old side shouldn’t adopt a style of play that’s too direct despite the arrival of Andy Carroll last month, expressing his wish via West Brom News.

The ex-England international arrived at The Hawthorns in the latter stages of last month after he opted against signing a contract extension at Championship rivals Reading, coming in as a replacement for £7m arrival Daryl Dike who is currently out injured.

He has been a regular starter since his arrival, starting in Valerien Ismael’s last game on his debut and continuing to be a vital first-teamer under successor Steve Bruce, though he has been unable to get on the scoresheet in his three outings for Albion thus far.

Carroll’s former side Reading started playing a more direct style of football under Veljko Paunovic when the 33-year-old joined the Berkshire outfit back in November, something they only had limited success with as he saw the Royals win just one game in his eight appearances before moving on to the Baggies.

This set him up well for life under Ismael before the latter’s dismissal, though he is still likely to be a real asset under Bruce with the duo working with each other at Newcastle United before reuniting this term.

Despite Carroll’s strengths though, pundit Phillips believes his former side can’t be too predictable in terms of their style of play in their quest to win promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

Speaking in an interview with West Brom News, he said: “You don’t buy someone if you’re not going to play to their strengths.

“The biggest issue that anyone is going to have is keeping him fit, he’s not been used to playing loads and loads of football, if you can keep