Baggies can learn from Stoke City

By mpanter

After a frustrating defeat to Chelsea last weekend, West Brom now have a chance to show what they can do with a big game against Stoke.

The next few games for Tony Mowbray and his side are really important now and they must forget what has gone in the past and concentrate on what they have to do.

In my opinion they must also try to change the style of play as I do not think the football we are trying to play is getting us enough points at the moment.

When teams like Chelsea come to play you, you have to play ugly and get in their faces.

You have to do what Stoke did to Arsenal – let them know you are there and do not give them an easy game.

We did not do that and we let them play their football.

That was a big mistake and they did not have to get out of first gear to get the points.

We gave them time on the ball and they punished us for it.

I have said it for a long time now but I do think that unless we do play a bit more ugly against teams like that then we will be in trouble this season.

We have a big chance to pull ourselves out of trouble this weekend when we play Stoke.

They are three points ahead of us at the moment so we cannot afford to let them get any further away with a win.

We need to get to 40 points as quick as we can and winning games against the likes of Stoke is the way to do that.

It will be interesting to see the clash of styles when the two teams play.

We like to play a lot of football in front of teams but can be found wanting when it comes to doing what we need to do in the final third.

Stoke are the complete opposite in comparison.

They do not mess about with it in their own half and prefer to play football in the last third of the pitch.

They have been getting a lot of press about doing that and especially about using that long throw as a weapon.

In my opinion a lot of what has been written about Rory Delap and his throw-in is rubbish.

Stoke will not stay up because of it, they will stay up because of how they play as a team.

If a player can do what Rory does then why not use it.

It is playing to your strengths and that is ok by me.

It will be tough for West Brom to deal with but that is what this league is about.

Battling out results is what keeps you up and that is what the Baggies need to start doing.