Sam Allardyce believes West Brom’s extended break might benefit the squad after a sustained period of on-field frustrations has left their Premier League survival hopes in pieces. Spending time with compatriots on international duty and, for others, longer spells with families, might ensure that Albion end the season strongly, whatever their fate.
Sam Allardyce said “The break might do them good. We wanted to leave in high spirits by getting a victory at Crystal Palace. I think they did everything they possibly could to do that. I think a lot will happen over the next three weeks; players who haven’t played so much will arrange a couple of friendlies behind closed doors. Players that have played and who aren’t on international duty will get some time off with their families, and then the players on international duty will need to keep us informed on what they have done.”
One of those friendly matches that Allardyce alluded to took place last week. They saw off Huddersfield Town 3-1 behind closed doors as fringe players who have been lacking game time recently were given opportunities to perform in a competitive, of sorts, environment. Goals, though, have notoriously been an underlying problem in the Premier League for the entirety of Allardyce’s tenure and, for the most part, before he arrived too.
Sam Allardyce said “I would say the main issue is that we haven’t got a natural goal scorer – that’s the big thing. If you have a natural finisher, they score one in two or one in three chances. That is a natural finisher. At the moment we don’t have that clinical finisher. We can look at Mbaye and say if he had been onside more, he might have got five or six goals that would have made a difference to us. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened for him and he has only got one goal.
Allardyce had sought to address that by bringing in Mbaye Diagne in the January transfer window, admitted.
Sam Allardyce said “The rest of the team haven’t been able to contribute either based on the amount of chances they are creating for themselves. It’s not as if we are playing a game of football now and spending the vast majority of time defending and playing on the counter attack. We are hitting better numbers than the opposition, but that unfortunately hasn’t turned into victories because we haven’t been good enough at taking our chances.”
