West Brom blog: What do Albion need to secure safety?

Let’s not kid ourselves - West Bromwich Albion are very much in a relegation scrap this season. After all, the table doesn’t lie, writes Baggies blogger Nathan Carr.

I believe we need ten wins from our remaining 21 matches – taking us up to 44 points - to essentially guarantee Premier League survival for at least another year.

In that run, the current top six are included seven times.

Then again, it would be foolish to pick out specific games as definite wins or definite losses. Football is a funny old game as Wednesday night at Anfield showed.

I thought we saw a marked improvement in the performance in midweek – the way we fought tooth and nail, nullified their forward line and offered a genuine attacking threat of our own.

We’ll need that fighting spirit in abundance for the remainder of the campaign, as well as the quality to match.

It reaffirmed my belief that this group of players can get out of the situation that we currently find ourselves in. It’s not going to be easy, of course.

As I said in last week’s blog, all it takes is one victory to mount a run and climb up the table. I have faith in Alan Pardew and the players to make that happen.

This is not an excuse – more a general observation which has been made by plenty of fans – but having key players such as James Morrison, Nacer Chadli, Chris Brunt, Matt Phillips and Craig Dawson sidelined has made a difference.

The return of Morrison and Chadli should help address the lack of creativity in midfield and in turn improve our goal to game ratio.

I’d still really like to see a starting team consisting of Foster; Dawson, Evans, Hegazi, Gibbs, Barry, Krychowiak, Phillips, Brunt, Chadli, Rondon. I think that lineup could work very well indeed when every player is fit.

Bring on Manchester United at the Hawthorns!