‘I’m not stupid’ - Tony Mowbray has final say on West Brom striker Daryl Dike in damning reveal

Mowbray got thousands of words off his chest as he addressed the media for the last time as Albion head coach.

The 61-year-old spoke in depth about the club’s recruitment strategy, the likely approach to the summer transfer window and the imminent departures of Grady Diangana and John Swift, among other topics.

West Brom won just five of the 17 matches Mowbray took charge of, losing eight and drawing the other four. The main issue was the lack of attacking threat as Albion dwindled in Mowbray’s final games, scoring just four goals in the last six outings.

Mowbray struggled to figure out the best tactical approach as many of the strikers he had at his disposal, including Adam Armstrong and Will Lankshear, were either out of form or unable to reach full sharpness. Josh Maja never kicked a ball under Mowbray due to a lower leg injury, leaving Daryl Dike as the fourth and final option.

The problem with Dike, it turns out, was his fitness and work rate. There were many calls for Mowbray to start the American due to Albion’s failure to score enough goals, but the head coach never really had a choice as Dike was simply incapable of playing more than 30 minutes in matches.

Tony Mowbray lifts lid on ‘issue’ with Daryl Dike

In a rather damning admission, Mowbray, unknowingly about to be sacked as soon as he left the press room, revealed the vast problems Dike caused. The context is the striker has not long recovered from a serious Achilles injury, but the regularity of training and his work rate weren’t considered sufficient enough to get back to sharpness.

“The issue I have with Dike is he doesn’t train every day. He has two or three days where he doesn’t do any training,” Mowbray said during his last few minutes as boss.

“If I’m wanting to play a game with intensity and pressing and denying the opposition the ball, Daryl’s not - in my opinion - at the level fitness-wise to help the team.

“I know what he can do. It’s like everything in football, people look at what footballers can do. Look, Daryl’s a powerful monster of a man, physically huge. I do talk to the sports science and medical department about him, they feel as if he’s still carrying something from not playing much football for a few years.

“He’s stuck in a cycle of how do you get him, what I would call, ‘match fit’. At the moment, it’s cameos. So, if he started a game, when would he be coming off? Would he get the first 45 minutes, or am I taking him off after half an hour? Because he’s not moving after half an hour!”

Dike never married up with Mowbray’s plans

As it was one of the most critiqued areas of Mowbray’s management of West Brom, the former Birmingham City boss wanted to address his striker quandaries. The balance was never quite there for Mowbray at The Hawthorns and he was desperate to figure out a way of making things click.

“In my mind, I want to play a high-intensity game, deny the opposition the ball,” Mowbray explained. “Let’s play in their half. I think for most of the games I’ve been here, we did that pretty well. The conundrum was Armstrong was working really hard to close the centre-halves down and yet wasn’t scoring goals.

“So, we’ve taken Armstrong out of the picture a bit and put in Lankshear, who’s not played much football. He probably also needs to get up to speed. I think the 19-year-old boy can play the first hour and then come off because he’s not played much men’s football.

“Then, Daryl Dike, in my mind, he’s a substitute. I need to see him do a full pre-season. I need him to show me aerobically he can do what he has to do. Because it’s not in my mind about Daryl Dike, it’s about the team trying to win football matches.

“I’m not here to get Daryl fit by putting him in our team to give him minutes, I’m here to try and get him on the pitch, hoping he we can get the ball in the box and he scores. I’m not here to give Daryl 60 minutes and see how he gets on, I’m here to win.

“So, I found out that Armstrong and Lankshear have been better bets and yet neither have been scoring bundles of goals. The argument supporters might have is we just know Dike scores. Well, he’s had half an hour today (against Derby) and I’m not sure how many shots or headers he had on goal, I don’t think he had any.”

Ollie Watkins’ mentality should be employed

Mowbray wanted to add that he understood Dike’s frustrations at not gaining regular game time to build momentum. At the same time, though, Mowbray wasn’t going to just hand Dike what he wanted for the sake of it; the striker had to use his anguish to perform strongly and force a way into the team.

“I think every footballer should be trying to prove the manager wrong if he’s not playing,” Mowbray suggested. “This conversation was had on Sky the other night about Ollie Watkins – he was left out of their two biggest games of the season, he wasn’t happy, he was angry. Then he showed within 33 seconds of coming on the pitch (by scoring against Newcastle).

“If you’re not picked, don’t moan. Use the energy and the anger as a source of, ‘I’ll show ya’. I think that’s what footballers should do.”

It was never personal, the team was put first

In a final point on Dike, Mowbray assured there was no disrespect intended by his man-management of the striker. West Brom were always put first when Mowbray made decisions, even when they were cut-throat. In the case of Dike, he never really proved why he should be playing – and the effort ultimately wasn’t there.

“Last thing, it’s not about Daryl, it’s about the team,” Mowbray insisted. “I understand we’re not winning matches but it’s very easy for a third party to say, ‘Why isn’t Mowbray putting Dike in the team?’. I get it, but I watch him every day and see him in training.

“I’m not stupid to the point where I’m not trying to win matches. I don’t pick teams not to win matches. So, if I thought Daryl Dike was going to help us win a match, I would start him. But I don’t think he’s physically ready yet.

“Look, Daryl might have a different opinion and he probably has, but I can only judge what I see every day – and not even every day because he’s not out there training some days of the week.”