The Baggies have proven to be a tough team to break down under Carlos Corberan.

Alex Palmer leads the chase for the Championship Golden Glove with his 9 clean sheets in 18 matches.

Indeed, one has to go back to the first two home matches of the season to find the last time that WBA allowed their opponents more than 1 xG at The Hawthorns. This includes keeping xG creation kings Ipswich down to a faintly ridiculous 0.1 xG last time.

Not only are West Brom one of only two Championship teams to concede less than a goal per game, but this is backed up by them having the third-best xG against record in the division as well.

Intriguingly, they manage to achieve this without doing very much in the way of tackling. They have the second-lowest rate for successful tackles in the competition, and they have conceded the fewest fouls per match in the league as well. It is not a high press.

The leaders of the whole competition are also the leaders of many of the performance stats.

Enzo Maresca wants to control as much as possible, and will have been drilling this team in perfect positional play, much like we see at the Etihad. As much of the focus is on where you are to regain the ball as well as where you are to receive it.

When Corberan wanted to use a three-at-the-back system it caused a slight problem in that there was no obvious candidate for the left wing back role.

Matt Phillips has ended up making the role his own. However, the role is interpreted intelligently in that the formation is quite lopsided to allow Phillips to make the most of his athleticism, to affect the play more in the final third rather than concentrating on defending.

Phillips has the third-highest shots per 90 of those that are likely to start for West Brom in this match, but he is priced up lower down the pecking order because of the position that his name is in on the team sheet. If one can look beyond that to see the role that Phillips is in fact playing for the team, then his price certainly looks like great value.

Leicester have such strong options going forward, and Enzo Maresca is doing a pretty good job at rotating them around. The midfield rotation cost Leicester away at Sheffield Wednesday though, as the difference when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Wilfried Ndidi were introduced to the match was palpable.

Dewsbury-Hall is an interesting player for final third data. He sits 2nd in the league for expected assists, behind only Georginio Rutter of Leeds.

Which brings us to Wilfried Ndidi. The Nigerian international has been let off the leash this season and he has been helping himself to regular shots at goal. He is averaging over 2 per 90 minutes, which makes him decent value in that market.

Predictions:

🚀 Matt Phillips to have 2+ shots @ 2.0

🚀 Wilfried Ndidi to have 1+ shot @ 1.36

🚀 Wilfried Ndidi to have 2+ shots @ 3.0

The biggest standout looking at the Baggies defensively is how little they foul. The defensive method is reminiscent of Brentford in the Premier League, well organised, and, seemingly, fairly passive, until they receive the trigger and off they go.

This has been working exceptionally well for them as a team, but can be a little difficult to find good angles on West Brom for either cards or fouls.

When conducting the research though it does appear that if you want to get with West Brom in this market, going to the wing-backs is probably the best way.

The very nature of the role requires them to be involved in a lot of duels, so it makes sense that the fouls will come from there as well.

Darnell Furlong has kicked his game on to another level this season and is an obvious shout in this market. The former QPR man very much leads the way in fouls for West Brom, and is the only regular starter with more than one foul per 90.

Matt Phillips, despite being fancied for goals, also has a defensive job to do. He is 2nd on the list of foulers for West Brom, albeit a way behind Furlong. He will have to work hard against Leicester so could be worth a bet as well here.

The way that Maresca gets this Leicester team to win the ball is by getting the whole team to step onto their opposition, and it is often the wide forwards who are able to get into a defensive duel in the corner to nick the ball back.

Of course, sometimes this goes wrong, but there is a reason that defensive duels have such a strong correlation with fouls committed.

Abdul Fatawu is the poster boy for this tactic, but he is also the player who has suffered the most with four yellow cards to his name. The fact that he is one away from a ban and also may not start means that Stephy Mavididi is probably a better bet for fouls in this one.

Predictions:

🛑 Darnell Furlong to commit 2+ fouls @ 2.0

🛑 Matt Phillips to commit 1+ foul @ 1.33

🛑 Matt Phillips to commit 2+ fouls @ 2.62

🛑 Stephy Mavididi to commit 1+ foul @ 1.28

🛑 Stephy Mavididi to commit 2+ fouls @ 2.40