Express & Star

Pepe Mel wants his Baggies to be brave

Pepe Mel today urged Albion to be brave as he headed for Manchester City looking for a second successive victory over Manuel Pellegrini.

Published

But the Baggies boss will settle for a 1-0 win at the Etihad Stadium tonight instead of the 3-0 victory he tasted last time he met the City manager.

Mel's Real Betis side defeated Pellegrini's Malaga 3-0 in February 2013 in their last meeting before the Chilean moved to City.

But Mel knows any victory tonight would be a major achievement and he is urging his players to show courage on the ball after they fell back against Tottenham in their last game, throwing away a 3-0 lead before eventually drawing 3-3.

"This is something we have talked about this week – not changing our style of play or mentality and believing in ourselves," said Mel.

"Tottenham made us change our style of play and that was detrimental because I thought West Brom played a great game.

"The only thing we're talking about is winning. We've not thought about anything else.

"We are preparing the team to go there and win. In football anyone can beat anyone else.

"In our last game Manuel was Malaga head coach and I was Betis head coach and it was 3-0 for us.

"But that's not important because we are with other clubs now. This time 1-0 would be good.

"At Villarreal, Real Madrid and Malaga his teams played with the same, attractive style. "I admire Manuel but also Tony Pulis, who has just got 40 points with Crystal Palace. We can learn from everyone."

Mel is waiting on the fitness of defender Jonas Olsson (Achilles) and midfielder James Morrison (ankle) but both are unlikely to be risked with a vital home game against West Ham to follow in five days' time.

Mel, however, is urging his players to take inspiration from rock-bottom Sunderland, who became only the second team after Chelsea to avoid Premier League defeat at the Etihad last week when they claimed a 2-2 draw. With leaders Liverpool winning at Norwich yesterday, the gap to City in third is nine points with the Eastlands outfit having two games in hand.

Mel said: "The bad thing about the Sunderland game is that it might serve as a warning for them and perhaps they might come out even stronger. But the good thing is it shows we can go out and win."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.