"A dangerous idea" - West Brom starter tipped to be axed by Corberan for Sheffield Wednesday clash | OneFootball

FLW's West Bromwich Albion fan pundit believes that Mikey Johnston should receive his first start over Karlan Grant on Saturday afternoon

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Mikey Johnston could be in line to receive his first start of the 2024/25 Championship campaign as a West Brom player for Saturday afternoon's trip to Sheffield Wednesday after returning on a permanent basis during the summer transfer window.

The Republic of Ireland international winger enjoyed a memorable loan spell at The Hawthorns during the second-half of the previous season, scoring seven goals from 20 matches to fire the Baggies into the Championship play-offs.

Johnston eventually returned from Celtic over the summer for a reported £3m fee, although he has appeared from the bench during his first handful of matches back with Carlos Corberan's side.

Corberan has elected to make minimal changes to his starting 11 game by game, with Albion enjoying an electrifying start to the new season.

The Baggies are the only team across the Championship to remain unbeaten after six matches, and maintained their red-hot run of early-season form by seeing off Plymouth Argyle in a nervy 1-0 home victory over the weekend.

West Brom will be looking to keep the streak going when they travel to Sheffield Wednesday for one of Saturday afternoon's three early kick-offs across the Championship, although Corberan may just have a bold call to make.

Carlos Corberan told to start Mikey Johnston over Karlan Grant for West Brom's Sheffield Wednesday clash

Karlan Grant has undertaken something of a resurgence after returning from a loan spell with Championship rivals Cardiff City, winning supporters back over after becoming an unpopular figure in recent times.

The versatile forward has started the season well, but Football League World's Baggies fan pundit Callum Burgess believes that his side could be best served by dropping Grant in place of Johnston ahead of their trip to the Steel City.

"I think Saturday might resemble the perfect opportunity to start getting Mikey Johnston starting on a consistent basis for West Brom again," Callum explained to Football League World.

"While Karlan Grant has had a good start to the season and he's played well in his first five games so far, especially in an away fixture at Hillsborough which is quite a big pitch, so Johnston having space to run into is a dangerous idea with [Josh] Maja dropping deep and getting one-two's going.

"That might lead to a chance or two for Johnston to open his Albion account again this season. Other than that, the next possible item on the agenda would be whether Jason Molumby is back to play again.

"Although [Uros] Racic had a decent game against Plymouth, Molumby may come straight back in if he's fit but we don't know to be fair.

"[Ousmane] Diakite also had a decent performance off the bench so he might get his first start as well, so that remains to be seen.

"Other than that, those two areas might be where changes occur but we can have no complaints if it's unchanged once again with Albion making the least changes to a starting line-up across the EFL so far - it took until Molumby got injured for them to make a change to the team that started the first game of the season."

Carlos Corberan needs to unleash Mikey Johnston at West Brom

Admittedly, it is difficult for the Spaniard to opt for too many tweaks to his starting lineups given how well the team have started the season, but unleashing Johnston back on second-tier defences sooner rather than later could provide an additional boost.

At his best, Johnston exerts X-Factor and can change games in an instant.

Indeed, you would be hard-pressed to find too many potential wing duos at this level superior to one of Johnston and Fellows, with the latter cementing himself among the finest young talents in the division.

Johnston is a high-volume shooter who likes to cut in, while Fellows is very much in the blend of a traditional, old-school winger in the way he hugs the byline, gets chalk on his boots and arches crosses into the penalty box.

Fielding them both together would represent a healthy and lethal cocktail of balance for Corberan, who has trusted Grant with good reason but will simply have to return Johnston to the starting side at some stage.

Grant is a very different player to the one West Brom signed some four years ago. At Cardiff, a team which seldom saw much of the ball, he developed his skillset and became increasingly dogged, hard-working and positionally diligent.

It was a stylistic contrast from his previous seasons with the Baggies and the introduction of that side of his game will certainly serve a strong purpose across a 46-game season, but Johnston is a game-changer and Albion supporters are rightly becoming increasingly eager to see him make the starting cut.