The manager of embattled West Brom, Sam Allardyce, believes that the relegation-threatened team can survive the drop from the Premier League this season.
The veteran coach said his “ultimate target” is to ensure that the club garner at least 38 points before the season ends. He believes that such an amount of points will be enough for West Brom to remain in the top league.
Sam Allardyce has a record of rescuing clubs from the relegation zone and keeping them in the elite league. West Brom brought him in last December based on this credential but his job with West Brom is proving a bit difficult.
Since he became the football manager of West Brom, the 66-year-old tactician has managed to win only one Premier League game in his first 9 league matches. Based on the terrible form, the club has remained on the 19th spot on the league table with little or no improvement.
After playing 22 league games this season, West Brom have managed to record a total of 2 victories, 6 draws, and a whopping 14 defeats. It has been so terrible that the club has managed to garner only 12 points, 11 points away from 17th placed Burnley.
Despite this wide margin between safety and West Brom, Sam Allardyce has done his calculations and concluded that out of the 16 Premier League matches that the club has to play, he can help the club to garner at least 26 points.
To achieve this, the veteran coach has to find a way for West Brom to win at least 6 league games and draw at least four. Better still, the club has to win 9 games out of the remaining 16 league games to stand a chance of gathering 38 points before the end of the 2020-2021 season.
While doing that, Sam Allardyce would have to pray that clubs like bottom-placed Sheffield United, 18th placed Fulham, and 17th placed Burnley continue to suffer bad results. That is how difficult the task before Sam Allardyce is.
The coach would have to start gathering the points that he needs to survive relegation from today, February 7, when West Brom face bruised Tottenham Hotspur. A win against the 9th placed Spurs would increase West Brom’s points to 15.
“They used to say the safety mark was 40 points. It’s not really that now, it’s 38, and that will be the ultimate target,” Allardyce said ahead of Tottenham vs West Brom league match.
“When I compare it with other situations where I’ve come into the Premier League around December – Blackburn, Sunderland, Crystal Palace, and Everton – and the points difference to games this would be the hardest one.
“The number of points that have to be made up. We could easily be sat here with four points from those two games (against Fulham and Sheffield United) and that would have been very satisfying indeed.
“But we slipped up so when we play Tottenham, Manchester United, or West Ham we’ll have to get a victory in those games.
“We have failed against teams in and around us to achieve the number of points we wanted to, which means we have to make up those points against teams in higher positions.
“We have to produce performances in those games to get some victories, not just draws. That’s the position we’ve put ourselves in.
“We’ll have to surprise teams like I’ve done in the past at other clubs in this position.
“We need to do what Brighton and Burnley have done, get a victory against some of the bigger teams in this league, while not forgetting when we play teams in that bottom eight it’s almost getting to the stage where it’s a must-win.”
Mozza heading in for a win at Spurs 🔙 in 2014 💪 pic.twitter.com/Ll2FdnmCQ1
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) February 6, 2021
