Alan Pardew struggling to find answers at West Brom
Alan Pardew has admitted that finding a solution to Albion’s problems from within their squad has been tough.
Pardew believes his players are being crippled by a chronic lack of confidence, but he’s also found it difficult to solve the team’s goalscoring woes with limited options in his attacking players.
Albion have scored the fewest goals of all the sides in the Premier League and the Football League this season, but even though Hal Robson-Kanu is returning from injury this weekend, Pardew still has Daniel Sturridge, Nacer Chadli, and James Morrison unavailable.
When he was asked last week if it was the toughest group he’d worked with he said: “I think it’s the toughest group to find answers with sometimes. We still have good players here who can go up a level and that’s what we need to get now, players who can go up a level.
“I thought Chadli and Morrison would be coming back to me far quicker than they have.
“Daniel Sturridge getting injured was a blow. We’ve had a few blows and a few injuries that have harmed us. It has been tough but it’s not daunting, it still doesn’t daunt me. There’s got to be a little bit more taking on responsibility and understanding their true worth.
“Some players here don’t understand that they’re better and they need to deliver better performances that they can.”
Sturridge was initially targeting a return from his hamstring injury in the Huddersfield match, but it has been pushed back and back each week.
Chadli is due back after the international break but Morrison may have played his last game for the club after struggling to shake off an Achilles problem.
“James is not really close if I’m honest,” said Pardew. “Chadli is training, when I say training he’s training on his own. Remember he broke down before. We have to be very careful.
“They’re two massive players for this group in terms of creativity and that’s been an area where we’ve struggled a bit.”
