New West Brom manager Sam Allardyce says he wants to see the spirit the players showed in last week’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City return for the Premier League strugglers’ next game against champions Liverpool.
The 66-year-old faces a daunting challenge to preserve his managerial record of never being relegated from the Premier League after West Brom slumped to a 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa in his first game on Sunday.
The former England manager’s first match in charge since replacing Slaven Bilic left him with much food for thought — not least whether Jake Livermore should be restored to the captaincy when the former England international has served a three-game ban for his red card in Sunday’s match.
Since the Premier League came into being, no club with fewer than eight points after 14 games have stayed up. This was West Brom’s 14th game and they have seven points.
“An easy one next (Liverpool),” quipped Allardyce about next Sunday’s game at Anfield.
“We will give it our best shot, no-one expected us to battle against Manchester City and I did not see that tonight, we need to find that.”