Our live stream ahead of Tuesdays Premier League match, WBA vs Leeds United is now up and running, kicking off at 18.00 GMT
You can keep an eye on the commentary as it happens below, but first, we take a preview into the fixture, lineups, predictions and much more…
West Brom come into the game after managing to take a point from their trip to champions Liverpool at the weekend.
The Baggies produced an inspired performance to stop the champions taking all three points in front of a 2,000-strong Kop, with Sadio Mane’s opener cancelled out by Semi Ajayi’s header as West Brom walked away from Anfield with something to show for their efforts.
Managing to hold Jurgen Klopp’s men to a draw on Merseyside certainly has West Brom fans feeling optimistic about their chances of survival with Allardyce at the helm, with the Baggies boss renowned for his great escapes as West Brom look ahead to the New Year.
Leeds United’s decimated defence shipped six against Manchester United after putting five past Newcastle United a few days before, but Marcelo Bielsa’s side got off to the perfect start against Burnley as Patrick Bamford’s penalty put them 1-0 up within the opening five minutes.
The game against Burnley was not one of the classic goal-laden performances we have become accustomed to seeing from Bielsa’s men, but the narrow win lifted Leeds back above Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League table.
The two clubs last met on in the Championship on new years day, sharing the spoils with a 1-1 draw at the Hawthorns…
PRESS CONFERENCE:
Sam Allardyce – Post Liverpool
On the result…
“I think that everyone has seen we showed a lot of resilience today to keep ourselves in the game and we kept trying to do the right things,”
“Defensively, apart from the slip up for the goal we were excellent. I think a change of tactics about 30 minutes in, putting Grant up front gave us a bit more of an out ball rather than everybody just getting pegged back. It started to work a little bit by him holding it up and us getting in to Liverpool’s half. In the second half I think we expanded on that.”
“At half-time we said we must get more players forward to support him and if we can do that we can get the ball in Liverpool’s half more often and if we can do that we may get an opportunity because we are 1-0 down and losing 1-0 isn’t going to be good enough.”
“We could either draw 1-1 or lose 2-0 or 3-0. We needed to get more expansive the longer the game went on, and that’s what wins you games of football because we took advantage of Liverpool’s slip ups.”
“I think had we done even better we would have got level sooner with Karlan Grant going one-on-one with the goalkeeper. After that you could see the team had a bit of belief going forward. Then the ball that came in was a quality ball and big Semi scores a power header in off the post. Brilliant result.”
“We have a game in two days against Leeds and our concern will be fatigue and can the players recover as quickly as possible. Then we have to plan for how Leeds play in a short period of time so we will be completely focused on looking at how Leeds play.”
Marcelo Bielsa – Post Burnley
How pleased were you with that defensive performance?
“In the first half we defended very well. This was helped by the fact we finished our attacks in the opposing half. In the second half we had to defend closer to our own goal.”
“It was difficult for us to solve some duels in the second half. Especially in the last part of the game, it was an energetic and valiant effort by the guys and very decisive.”
Pascal Struijk did so many good things today for you – how do you sum his performance?
“Yes, he was very influential and he contributed a lot to our defensive stability in the middle.”
It’s 20 points from 15 games at this stage. At what point as a head coach do you say that is a job well done so far and you are ahead of schedule?
“What I normally have responded is that we’ve had ups and downs, variations. Our objective was to compete on an even keel with all our opponents in the Premier League, but it’s not an easy task.”
“For example, if you look at what happened at the end of the second half, in which we had to adapt to a situation which we hadn’t faced up until now and where the result was in danger. Every game in the Premier League is a big challenge.”
It seemed to take an awful lot out of the players, they put in a huge effort. Phillips in paricular. How do you get them to recover in time for the next fixture with it being so quickly?
“There’s procedures to facilitate and to speed up the recovery of the players that all the teams use. Linked to hydrotherapy and kinesiology, nutrition and the rest.”
Can you tell us how close Diego Llorente came to being involved in the squad today?
“He had a setback on Wednesday and from there he hasn’t evolved. He stopped being an option for the game today.”
With that being said, how proud of how Kalvin did today, stepping in at such late notice, preparing for the match and playing in a position he hasn’t played in much this season?
“Phillips is player with a big capacity to adapt to playing in different positions on the pitch and the times where he has had to play as a centre-back in back-three, everytime he has played in a back-three he has had good responses and played with authority and today as well.”
It’s very soon after the game but can you put your finger on what the problem was in that second half and why you struggled so much to get out of your own half and to build attacks?
“We hung on to the result. We probably took less risks near our own box it was difficult for us to take them into their own half and these things were inchanged together, one provoked the other.”
“When the opponent finishes their attacks in our own box, not only is it more difficult to defend, that meant also that and we never found them disorganised when we had the ball and in that way it was more difficult for us to dominate the second half.”
“The version of the game of the final part of the second half and perhaps in the whole second half, it was the game that they were proposing, the game that they wanted to play.”
“We weren’t able to stop them from playing how they wanted, were weren’t able to neutralise them and although we defended fiercely, the opponent had chances to score. And it was very difficult for us to position ourselves in their half.”
Obviously Sean Dyche was pretty unhappy with the decision that the referee made mdiway through the first half when Mee collided with the keeper – what did you make of that decision? He seems to think it should have gone the other way, maybe they should have had a penalty?
“I sincerely haven’t formed an opinion because I haven’t been able to watch the action back. It wouldn’t be correct to have an opinion without the certainty.”
FORM:
West Bromwich Albion Premier League form: WLLDLD
Leeds United Premier League form: WLLWLW
LINEUPS:
West Bromwich Albion possible starting lineup:
Johnstone; Furlong, Ajayi, O’Shea, Gibbs; Sawyers; Phillips, Gallagher, Pereira, Diangana; Grant
Leeds United possible starting lineup:
Meslier; Dallas, Ayling, Struijk, Alioski; Phillips; Raphinha, Klich, Rodrigo, Harrison; Bamford
THATSAGOAL TIP:
COMING SOON
Time to take a look at our WBA vs Leeds live match stream as it happens…
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