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Sam Allardyce says West Brom have signed a player who’ll make the team ‘more creative’
West Bromwich Albion manager Sam Allardyce says Okay Yokuslu has been signed not only to protect the Baggies back four but to make the team more creative.
The Turkey international has joined West Brom until the end of the season from La Liga side Celta Vigo.
Yokuslu is a versatile player who can be deployed in central midfield, defensive midfield, and at centre-back.
The 26-year-old has had to make do with a bit-part role this season, making 14 appearances in all competitions but just five starts.
Allardyce has a good track record in snapping up influential midfielders in the January window.
At Sunderland, he signed Jan Kirchhoff from Bayern Munich, and at Crystal Palace, he recruited Luka Milivojević from Olympiakos.
Both players helped to steer their respective sides away from the danger zone, and Allardyce is confident Yokuslu will play a similar role.
“He’s the sort of player I have looked for at many clubs in this position, particularly at Sunderland and Crystal Palace,” he told the WBA .
“I signed Jan Kirchhoff from Bayern Munich at Sunderland and Luka Milivojevic from Olympiakos at Crystal Palace. He’s that type of player.
“The one who can protect the back four, can be the best passer to create openings in attack and hopefully if he can settle as quickly as the two players I have just mentioned, then it will definitely help us to not concede as many goals.
“It will also make us more creative by his passing quality that we have looked for and searched for though the last four weeks.”
The deal makes it five new faces for West Brom in the January window, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Andy Lonergan, Robert Snodgrass and Mbaye Diagne also moving to The Hawthorns.
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Yokuslu may be struggling for game time this season but a tally of 72 competitive appearances for Celta since signing in 2018 is fairly decent, not to mention over 100 apiece for former clubs Trabzonspor and Kayserispor and, of course, 28 caps for his country.
Superb in the air and boasting an impressive passing range, a scouting report from March 2018 deemed him “the type of player that can become the backbone of a team. A multi-faceted player ideal for the demands of the modern game.”
West Brom are in action tonight away at Sheffield United so let’s hope the 6ft 3in enforcer can have the same immediate impact Diagne made at the weekend, and make himself a permanent fixture in the Baggies XI.