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Albion need to ease burden on Saido Berahino

Alan Irvine has challenged his Albion players to help ease the goalscoring burden on Saido Berahino.

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Irvine wants more goals from the rest of his squad to ease the pressure on Berahino, whose flying start to the season earned him a call-up to the England squad.

The 21-year-old has netted seven of the Baggies' 13 Premier League goals so far this term with no other player managing more than a single strike.

Summer signings Brown Ideye and Georgios Samaras and fellow striker Victor Anichebe have struggled for form and fitness and Irvine is hoping the rest of his side can find the net more regularly.

"Of course we need goals from everybody in the team and from as many people as we can possibly get," said Irvine. "Saido is the one who is going to be in goalscoring positions more than anybody else and he's shown what a good finisher he is when he has been in those positions, so I'm delighted Saido has scored the goals he has so far and I hope that continues.

"But yes, we do need goals from other parts of the team, as does everybody else."

Berahino suffered disappointment when his first call-up to the full England squad failed to yield a debut but Irvine believes it will have given him a taste for more.

"Having had that taste, I'd hope he'll be desperate for a bigger taste and a regular taste," he said.

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