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Tony Pulis: Guochuan Lai supports direction I'm trying to take West Brom

Tony Pulis is confident Albion owner Guochuan Lai supports the direction he is trying to take the club.

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Tony Pulis. (AMA)

The Baggies are on a seven-game winless streak in all competitions but Pulis says there are signs the team is evolving.

His side started the weekend in the top half and would have been placed even higher had they not conceded late equalisers against Stoke, Watford and Leicester.

Craig Shakespeare’s removal from the Leicester hot seat after his 1-1 draw with Albion earlier this week served as a stark reminder of how short managerial life-spans can be, but Pulis insists he is not under any such pressure.

“We know as well as everybody else knows it’s a results-driven business," admitted Pulis.

“Their (owners') understanding of what’s needed and what is necessary is sometimes different to other people’s understanding.

“There are always different threads through football clubs but from my own experience Mr Lai and the Chinese have been absolutely fantastic in respect of what we’re trying to achieve at the club.”

The Baggies have struggled to click since a successful summer in the transfer market brought in six exciting new faces, but Pulis says there have been positive signs in their performances.

“I feel we’ve been unfortunate not to win games,” he said. “If the shoe was on the other foot and we were scraping through games and nicking a point here and there it would be different but I don’t think we’ve been doing that. And I don’t think the performances have suggested that.”

Albion have only scored seven goals in their opening eight league games, and Pulis confirmed he had been working to fix his side’s lack of creativity in the final third ahead of the trip to Southampton.

“We as a team have got to score more goals,” he said. “We’ve had the opportunities, even against Leicester. It’s the final pass, as much as anything else, which has got to improve.

“It's not just the forwards, it's everywhere, and we've talked about that this week.”

He’s also re-watched the late equalisers that have cost his team six valuable points in recent weeks, and concluded that it was down to ‘individual errors’ rather than an endemic problem with his team.

"It's disappointing. If you look at the three games - Stoke, Watford and Leicester - that could be an extra six points but it’s fine lines and you have to roll with it," he said.

“We've looked back on the goals we've conceded to see if there's any thread to them.

"It's been more individual errors than anything else but that point has been covered and we've looked at that.

“Whether we're making substitutions at the right or wrong time, we've looked at all of that. When you boil it down it's just been individual mistakes and that happens sometimes.

“You mustn’t get too down or too disappointed, you’ve just got to keep moving on and make sure the players don’t get too down or too disappointed with it.”

An experienced campaigner with a quarter of century in the dugout under his belt, Pulis has not lost confidence in his methods.

And he admits that winless streaks will occur in a league he says has become more competitive this season.

“Outside the top six your results are going to fluctuate, you’re going to have real lows and real highs and that’s the way it is,” he said.

“It’s very rare that you have a whole season in calm waters and it’s how you react to those highs and lows that determine where you end up."