‘Difficult to stop’ – Bilic details West Brom plan to stop Palace’s attackers
Slaven Bilic has highlighted the quality of Crystal Palace’s attack as his West Brom side look to make it back to back league wins with victory over the Eagles.
The Baggies welcome Roy Hodgson’s Palace to The Hawthorns on Sunday afternoon as they look to follow up last week’s win over Sheffield United with another three-point haul.
But, speaking to West Brom’s official website, Bilic admitted that his side will find it ‘difficult’ to defend one on one against the Palace attackers but claimed that he knows how to stop them.
He said, “We know that it will have to be a team effort to stop them. It will be difficult to stop their attacking players one against one, so we have to give a proper team effort and sacrifice to stop their threat which will give us a better chance of winning the game.
“Their forwards are players who have so much skill, so much flair and so much pace. We have plenty of quality in our team and we can also cause them a threat. We have played well over the last few games and I want us to continue in this way.
“It’s important to try and win, just like we did last weekend. A second consecutive victory would be huge for us, but we know that Palace isn’t an easy game.”
Hodgson will welcome back Wilfred Zaha for the game against Albion following the winger’s recovery after contracting COVID-19 and there is no doubting that he is one of the players Bilic was referring to.
The 28-year-old is a talisman for Palace and he has five goals and two assists so far this season in the Premier League.
This means he has almost averaged one goal involvement per game in his eight league appearances this season and the Baggies defence will have their hands full whenever Zaha is bearing down on goal.
Summer signing Eberechi Eze has also impressed this season but his stats aren’t as impressive as Zaha’s.
The 22-year-old has one goal and one assist in the league this term but as anyone who has seen him play will testify, his ability on the ball means he can leave unsuspecting defenders in his wake.
West Brom face a tougher task than they did against the Blades but if they can keep Palace’s key men quiet they will have a great chance of picking up a second successive win.
In other West Brom news, many Baggies fans are devastated after news broke about an Albion player’s injury.
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