Yokuslu demands response following West Brom draw v Newcastle
West Brom midfielder Okay Yokuslu has claimed the club’s defensive improvements are “not enough”, demanding more of a reaction following their draw with Newcastle.
The Baggies were held in a goalless stalemate against the Magpies in a result that didn’t really benefit either side, as the race for Premier League survival heats up.
Albion remain 19th and eight points from safety, with Brighton now level on points with Fulham in 17th and 18th respectively.
Talking to West Brom’s official website following the disappointing result, Yokuslu bemoaned the club’s missed opportunity, claiming that they need to do more offensively if they are to survive.
Yokuslu said: “The feeling is that we have missed an opportunity. It was a very important game for us and it hurts that we haven’t won it.
“Everyone in the dressing room is sad because we desperately wanted three points. We had chances and we should have won the game in my opinion.
“It’s a positive thing for us to have kept a few clean sheets recently. We’ve been working on our defensive duties, but clean sheets are not enough for us at this stage.
“We know we have to be winning games because that’s the only way we are going to catch teams above us.”
Dead on assessment
It’s one of the oldest lines in the footballing handbook – goals win games.
Defensive assuredness aside, we’ll only ever be able to stay up this season if we start finding the net on a more regular basis.
Sergio Ramos and Virgil van Dijk could line up at the back for Albion and we wouldn’t stay up right now because we don’t offer enough going forward.
Yokuslu is right to demand more of a response from Albion, because they’ve been putting in the hard time on the training ground and now they have to translate that to the Premier League.
With Crystal Palace coming up next, West Brom cannot allow themselves to miss another opportunity, especially given the fact that Newcastle and Brighton are far from being safe.
Surprisingly there still is scope for Albion to stay up this season, but we absolutely must give it our all, and that has to start at Selhurst Park this weekend.
In other West Brom news, Ally McCoist described commentating Albion’s game against Newcastle as being like someone was ‘punishing’ him.
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