This article is part of Football FanCast's Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC's microscope.

West Brom got back to winning ways with a 4-2 victory over Cardiff City at the Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon.

The three points saw them regain control at the top of the Championship, having been defeated for the first time this season at the hands of Leeds United earlier in the week.

Albion went into the break with a two-goal advantage thanks to scorchers from their enigmatic loan duo Matheus Pereira and Grady Diangana before Charlie Austin finally netted his first league goal in a Baggies shirt later in the second half.

The Bluebirds found their way back into the match through substitute Danny Ward, who scored an 11-minute brace to leave the game nicely poised at 3-2 going into the dying stages, but Romaine Sawyers popped up with his maiden goal to fully secure the win with practically the last kick of the match.

Snapshot

With West Brom 3-0 up in the 73rd minute, manager Slaven Bilic decided to withdraw Matty Phillips for Filip Krovinovic, which is a move he appears to do regularly if the last couple of matches are anything to go by.

Two minutes later, it was the Cardiff sub that found the net before he clawed Neil Warnock's side back in it with four minutes to go.

Off the Bench

Krovinovic did start their five opening matches of this campaign before being dropped for Pereira, who has now made that number ten role his own since the Blackburn Rovers victory.

But it is now the fifth time in six matches that the Croatian has decided to introduce his fellow countryman as a substitute.

Looking at his performances in the handful of matches, it's not entirely clear why he does it - the 24-year-old's best showing was against Blackburn, where he managed a rating of 6.37 after recording two shots in just 13 minutes.

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More recently, at Leeds, his introduction put a stop to any chance of Albion salvaging a result as the man he replaced, Phillips, looked to be the most dangerous man in a Baggies shirt.

Then at the weekend, the midfielder again replaced the Scot with it coinciding with Cardiff's comeback.

There just wasn't any need for the playmaker to come on, especially as Pereira is far more a threat down the middle than out wide, and that's where he is moved to accompany Krovinovic.

It's just bizarre and unnecessary - unless he gets injured, just keep the Brazilian there.