Valerien Ismael opens up on attacking crisis at West Brom and how to solve it against Derby
Valerien Ismael has called for the West Brom players to have calm heads Infront of goal ahead of tonight’s showdown with Derby.
The Baggies face rock bottom Derby tonight but their position in the table doesn’t match their form. The Rams found themselves bottom after two point deductions equalling 21 points.
However, Wayne Rooney is exceeding expectations avoiding relegation, winning five and drawing 10 out of 22 so far this season.
West Brom travel to a stadium where they haven’t won since 2013 and with Derby pinching a point from the Hawthorns earlier in the season, they will have eyes for all three tonight.
A game Ismael will want to learn from as he believes his team could have won by four or five last time out.
Ahead of tonight’s clash, Ismael told Express & Star: “The great example in England is when you try to play golf,” the Frenchman said. “If you want to hit the ball and put all your effort in, all your energy and all your frustration into the shot – you never hit the ball well!
“But when you are relaxed and really cool you will always hit the ball and I think it’s the same principle with goalscoring.
“We need to work, we need to speak about this out loud. We need to show things to the players.
“It doesn’t help when you just scream at the players. It’s all about giving them the confidence to get back on track.
“They can score goals, they have shown that already. They just need to find their way to get back in the groove and be more relaxed.”
Vital
These are the types of games West Brom must win as they look to get back on track for the remainder of the season.
Things have been far from terrible at the Baggies but they could also be much better. They sit fourth at the halfway through season mark which the Albion know they can improve on.
West Brom could be challenging for the title and at least in the automatic play-off places but it’s not all doom and gloom at the Hawthorns. Despite struggling for form they sit in fourth place just four points behind league leaders Fulham.
If the Baggies have any hopes of achieving promotion or clinching the title this season, they must grind out results and start winning the games that have ended in draws or defeats already this season.
They do have the experience of being promoted to the topflight 11 times in their history, the most recent being in the 2019/20 season. something they can use to their advantage as they look to repeat this success.
In other West Brom news, West Brom attacker Matt Phillips expected to return for Brighton FA Cup clash.