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Sam Allardyce vows to keep working to shore up West Brom defence

Sam Allardyce has vowed to keep doing everything he can to shore up Albion's defence – with the boss believing clean sheets remain their best hope of survival.

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Allardyce is widely regarded as a survival specialist having previously defied the odds to keep the likes of Bolton, Blackburn, Crystal Palace and Sunderland in the Premier League.

But he has had a disastrous start as Albion boss – with the team having conceded a staggering 28 goals in his 10 top flight games in charge.

Allardyce feels a lot of the goals the Baggies have conceded could have been prevented at source – with the boss believing his players need to press harder and spot danger earlier.

But while his ideas don't appear to have sunk in so far, he is determined to get them across eventually.

"As a defender all my life, having spent my entire life telling defenders at whatever club I’ve been at, whether that’s at Limerick, in League Two, League One, the Championship or the Premier League, it’s all been about not conceding goals as a platform for success," the boss said.

"I’ve said to the players that our platform for success is to stop the opposition from scoring goals and we’re still failing to do that.

"Practise, practise and more practise will help the players retain the information they need and if they retain that information they will start making better decisions throughout the game."

Allardyce said Harry Kane's opener in Tottenham's 2-0 win over the Baggies last weekend is an example of a goal that should have been prevented.

"I have to say the ball into Harry Kane should not have been allowed," the boss continued.

"It’s the person who played the ball into Harry Kane (Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg).

"We should not have left him with that much time to do what he wanted when he was only five or six metres outside our box in the middle of our goal.

“If a player receives the ball five or six metres from our 18-yard line then our player should know to release himself and get to him touching that ball on his first touch.

“It’s what keeps his head down. We pretended we were in the right position but we weren’t.

“I’m behind the ball so I’m OK. No. You’re behind the ball but you’re five or six metres away from the man you should be pressing.

"If we’d kept his (Hojbjerg's) head down he would have had to play sideways or backwards, not forwards.

“There’s the first mistake and the second mistake comes with us marking Harry Kane and not tracking him. “Defending is always a collective effort."