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This article is part of Football FanCast's The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more... 

West Brom have started the season unbeaten after four games and they are potentially lucky to still have that intact after the draw with Reading on Wednesday evening.

Ovie Ejaria’s curling effort into the top corner looked like it was to be enough to secure a victory at the Hawthorns in what was a very frustrating match for Albion.

The Baggies had two penalty shouts turned down until one was finally given with just two minutes left on the clock – substitute Kenneth Zohore coolly stepped up to slot home the equaliser, his first for his new club.

Slaven Bilic had made changes to his starting line-up, most notably at right-back, as £1.5m summer signing Darnell Furlong was handed a debut in place of youngster Nathan Ferguson.

The teenager had done no wrong in his three Championship appearances and even earned the Man of the Match award in front of the TV cameras on the opening weekend. He is averaging a WhoScored rating of 7.03, which is the third-highest in the squad.

The Croatian may well have a selection headache on his hands as Furlong impressed.

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On the Chalkboard

West Brom face one of their toughest games yet on Saturday as they head to Pride Park to lock horns with Midlands rivals Derby County in the early kickoff.

And ahead of the game, Bilic expressed his ‘love’ for the 23-year-old Furlong following his impressive showing. He said:

“He's got good stamina, great skill, great first touch, can go up and down. I love him, he played really good."

The former QPR man recorded the most attempted tackles on the pitch (six) with 66% of them being successful. He also managed two clearances, two dribbles, a block and an interception - according to WhoScored.

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In Ferguson’s three Championship matches, he’s averaging less tackles per game at 2.3 as well as fewer dribbles per match at 1.3 but is recording one more interception.

The key difference is that Furlong may be the better option when Bilic wants his full-backs to attack, as aforementioned the 5 foot 11 defender had more dribbles on Wednesday night, but he also put in more crosses with one compared to Ferguson’s 0.3 per game.

Ferguson’s debut saw him gain possession eight times which also included four tackles, only going to show his ability in defence.

That leaves Bilic with a difficult choice to make but either way he should feel blessed with the two solid options at his disposal, both could get just as much game time as the other.

Need to be more defensive? Play Ferguson. More attacking? Play Furlong.

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