West Brom v Aston Villa: Sam Allardyce looks to make minor changes only

The Dudley-born chief arrived at The Hawthorns on Wednesday just hours after the club announced the dismissal of Slaven Bilic.

A derby against Villa – who have won four of their five away games so far – doesn’t look an ideal start on paper.

But for a man who relishes going into battle as the underdog, Allardyce knows this game provides him with a huge opportunity to get Albion fans onside.

The 66-year-old has seen it all in what has been a hugely successful career. But he has walked into what are relatively unique circumstances at The Hawthorns.

Bilic may have won just one of his 13 Premier League games in charge, but he still enjoyed a wonderful connection with supporters.

That was because of the way he rejuvenated the club last season and the subsequent promotion that followed.

Results may not have been great this term. But there are still a lot of supporters out there who wanted the Croatian to remain as boss.

Allardyce also isn’t helped by the fact he grew up as a Wolves fan.

At his press conference on Thursday, he insisted he grew up watching both Wolves and Albion – and that he was a huge fan of Jeff Astle and Bomber Brown.

There was no mention of that in his autobiography, however. And Allardyce knows getting a win over Villa will go a long way to winning over any doubters.

Before his dismissal, Bilic insisted it was only the finest of margins that were preventing Albion from winning games.

And Allardyce agrees – with the boss using the recent defeat at Newcastle as an example.

With less than 10 minutes to go, former Baggies loanees Jacob Murphy and Dwight Gayle combined to snatch the points for Steve Bruce’s side.

Murphy whipped in a cross which Gayle nodded home. And Allardyce believes it was a goal that was very preventable.

“I think small changes will make all the difference,” Allardyce said. “I don’t want to be critical of the players, but I watched the Newcastle game.

“It was a small difference on the cross that would’ve stopped that. It was only about shutting him down.

“You only had to be a metre or so closer and the cross doesn’t come in.

“And you all know about Gayle because he scored 20-odd goals here. You don’t let him get in-between you.

“That is what happened and it was another precious point lost.”

Allardyce met with and spoke to his squad for the first time on Thursday.

With such a quick turnaround before the Villa game, he says there aren’t too many things he can change.

But he hopes his arrival will give the players added motivation to perform.

“We have to try and get that bit of extra performance out of each individual and most importantly play as a team,” Allardyce said. “The two obvious things are we need to stop conceding as many goals and we need to score more.

“We haven’t overloaded them with information.

“But what I am hoping is the arrival of a new manager can lift them. You see it all the time.

“I will try and have an impact.

“Hopefully, the players will say ‘I have to play my best because I want the new manager to pick me’.

“If we can get that response against Villa and from then on, that is absolutely fantastic.

“We’ve seen it many times when a new manager comes in, all of a sudden wins appear from nowhere.

“I hope that happens here.”

Allardyce admits he is disappointed there will be no fans at tomorrow’s game – with the Sandwell region remaining under Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions.

“It’s a massive local derby, but I do feel it will be a bit subdued because there are no fans here,” the former Bolton boss said. “But the fans at home will know that the players want to win for them.

“Hopefully, if they’re working on Monday, they’ll have one over on the Villa fans.

“I’ll be very happy if I can beat the Villa. I know it’ll be difficult.

“But I hope to get the response I want in terms of an impact.”

Albion’s new boss hopes the Villa game will be the start of what turns out to be a very happy Christmas for Albion’s fans.

“Me, Sammy (assistant boss Sammy Lee) and the boys will be giving this job everything we’ve got,” he added. “Hopefully, we’ll have the success that we’ve had at other places previously.

“I’d like to wish Albion fans a happy Christmas and hopefully it will be a happy new year because we’ve started winning games.”