West Brom striking options a joy for Slaven Bilic
Slaven Bilic says it is a privilege to have in-from strikers Charlie Austin and Hal Robson-Kanu at his disposal as Albion prepare to host Brentford.
Robson-Kanu started in the lone striker role for Bilic for the derby at Birmingham but Austin joined him off the bench in the second half to net twice and clinch a 3-2 victory.
That made it six goals in five games for Austin but Bilic also highlighted the form of six-goal Robson-Kanu.
He said: “I’m happy I’m pleased with Charlie’s improvement.
“In the beginning he was doing well for us, he was not scoring goals but all his stats and chances that were coming on and work rate and everything was top.
“Sometimes when you work hard you need a little bit of a blip or whatever, now he works hard.
“He looks really good, so does Hal. We have both of them in real form.
“We are praising Charlie, I don’t mind, at the same time I don’t see one element in Hal Robson’s game, football this season basically, as an impact player or from the start, one element that is not top.
“We have both of them, this also gives us an option to have one of them on the bench or gives us an option to start with both of them.
“It is a privilege and an option.”
And Bilic did not rule out starting with both in future games.
He said: “It is one option (to play both), it is a good option, also it is something that we can use from the start or we can use it in the games like we are using.
“It is a great thing to have that.
“If you remember a few weeks ago I was asked a question about having no strikers in form.
“Now we have a situation that basically both strikers we are using are in-form and we have Kenneth (Zohore) who is working really hard.
“He did not drop one millimetre of effort in training so it is good.”
Bilic confirmed defender Kieran Gibbs (hamstring) and attacking midfielder Grady Diangana will miss the Bees clash.
He said: “Gibbo and Grady that is it (injury wise).”
“That is one of the reason we rested him (Grady) against Wigan.
“It is not a big one, he is already ahead of schedule.
“Not more than a week.
“Gibbo will train on Saturday.
“He will not be in the squad but it is OK.
“It is not ideal because they are good players, but it is OK.
