Tony Mowbray urged to consider West Brom tweak to make the most of Southampton, Adam Armstrong deal | OneFootball

Adam Armstrong has struggled for goals since joining West Brom on loan

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…

It was viewed as a major coup when West Bromwich Albion landed the services of Adam Armstrong on loan from Southampton in January, with the striker one of the Championship's most potent goal-getters in recent times.

The Baggies have been in pursuit of promotion for much of the season, despite a campaign which has been extremely draw-heavy under both Tony Mowbray and former head coach, Carlos Corberan.

But, when the 28-year-old put pen-to-paper on a loan agreement until the end of the season, Armstrong was viewed as the man who could secure Albion a place in the top six for the second successive season, particularly after his 24-goal haul last term, which included the winner in the play-off final against Leeds United.

However, his spell at The Hawthorns hasn't exactly gone according to the script thus far, with his former Blackburn Rovers boss, Mowbray, opting to utilise him on the left flank or as the main focal point in attack, which has led to a return of just two goals in Armstrong's first eight appearances for the club.

With just eight second tier matches left to play, FLW asked our West Brom fan pundit, Callum Burgess, what needs to change in order for the striker to have a stronger goal return in the run-in.

Since his re-appointment in B71, Mowbray has utilised, predominantly, a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 setup, which has seen the Newcastle-born frontman struggle in terms of quality service, as well as being guilty of spurning some guilt-edged opportunities.

However, with the Albion boss hopeful that Josh Maja will return from a lower leg injury as soon as possible, as well as Daryl Dike's recent involvement off the bench, Burgess has urged the 61-year-old to look at a potential two-man strikeforce to aid a return to regular goalscoring form for Armstrong.

"When Armstrong was signed, many would've thought that he was going to be a massive coup for West Bromwich Albion, and that he's probably as close as you could get to 'guaranteed goals' in the Championship, especially from his recent history at Southampton and Blackburn Rovers," Burgess told FLW.

"Only two goals so far, so in that sense, it's a bit disappointing," he claimed. "You'd have hoped he'd be on a few more by now, but you definitely have to take it into context.

"At Southampton he was getting loads of chances in the box and getting loads of shots off. It's probably a wider creativity issue at Albion, where a lot of our chances are, probably, coming from hopeless crosses into the box.

"Armstrong's not the tallest, so he's not going to thrive off that," our fan pundit stated.

"It would be hoped that Albion start to adapt and create a style of play which suits Armstrong, where he's going to get more shots off and more chances.

"With the return of Josh Maja soon, and Daryl Dike getting back to full fitness, potentially a front-two, where he's playing off another striker, that could benefit him more as there's going to be more than Armstrong for the centre-backs to focus on.

"Whereas, at the moment, all eyes will be on him, and he's going to be outlined by the opposition as our main danger in (terms of) getting a goal," he added.

"But when you have Daryl Dike and Josh Maja playing off him, that's another player to worry about."

Burgess concluded: "I think that would be a wise move for Tony Mowbray to consider in the future, to get the best out of Armstrong and solve our goalscoring problems as well as his own."

Adam Armstrong would benefit from a strike partner at West Bromwich Albion

Whilst it has been effective at various points across the season, Albion's ability to switch their style of play to one which is direct, doesn't play to Armstrong's strengths as a sole striker, with it working so well last season due to Russell Martin's neat, possession-based football at St Mary's.

Either Dike or Maja - potentially the latter more so due to his goal return so far this season - provide an aerial presence as well as their own instinctiveness in forward areas.

Such link-up play would definitely allow the Saints loanee to stretch defences more often than he has done, as well as not having to drift into wide areas all the time, with those in wide areas also able to thrive more as a result of having a 'target man' to aim for.

It is definitely an option which Mowbray could consider from the start of games, during tight encounters or based on the strengths and weaknesses of opposition defenders.