Man City v West Brom: Tony Pulis eager to put struggles in front of goal to bed
Tony Pulis isn’t sleeping. Albion have now failed to score in eight of their last 10 games and the head coach doesn’t know why.
He’s stayed resolutely calm throughout this poor run of form because the club is safe and the effort remains.
But the Baggies are now holding on to eighth by just their fingertips, and in truth, are lucky to still be there. Pulis is keen to finish with a flourish, and a goal or two at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night will help him rest easier ahead of Sunday’s season-ender at Swansea.
“I don’t sleep, but what can you do?” he said. “It’s a situation that we’ll keep working on. They do lots of drills in training.
“It’s a worry, of course it is. You need goals to win games and if you’re not scoring goals, irrespective of how hard you work, you’re not going to win football matches.
“We were scoring goals for fun at one stage. Chadli, Morrison, Phillips, the two centre-halves, Dawson, we were all adding in. That’s just dried up.
“I can’t put my finger on why. It’s not as if they’re not getting into the positions, Chadders and Salomon had opportunities the other night.
“It’s not as if we’re not creating the chances. We had five corners against Chelsea and for the first time this season we never once put it in the place where we wanted.
“But I can’t criticise Brunty or Fletch or Chadli, because they’ll have nights like that.
“We’re human beings, we’ll have good times and bad times. With football, that’s the way it runs at times.
“If they weren’t trying, if I didn’t think they were giving their best, if I didn’t think they cared, it would be a different matter.
“But this group, they’ve been a very honest and genuine group and they’ve given everything. It’s just that little bit of form or luck that we’ve needed has deserted us.”
Pulis will be without one of his main goal threats of this season though, as centre-back Gareth McAuley, who has started every single game so far, sits out with the knock he picked up at home to Chelsea.
He’s expected to be available for the Swansea game, but tonight Pulis will move Craig Dawson inside and play Bournemouth loanee Marc Wilson at full-back.
Matt Phillips remains sidelined with his hamstring injury and his season looks over already.
Pulis hopes Albion’s valiant effort against the best team in the land last Friday will give them confidence against the fourth-best team in the country. But he’s wary of tired legs at the end of a long season.
“It was a big game on Friday and we actually outran Chelsea a great distance,” said Pulis. “It’s a tough game at Man City, we know physically it’s going to be tough and they are a very good side.
“We know what they’ve got, Silva, De Bruyne, the team is full of quality. We’ve got to focused on what we do.
“I’m hoping we’ll put a performance in and do what we’ve done all season, work as hard as we possibly can and hope something drops for us.”
Claudio Yacob may be reinstated to the line-up after impressing from the bench on Friday night, but Pulis is keen to give 19-year-old Sam Field more valuable minutes in central midfield.
