Harvey Barnes thinking about clean sheets for West Brom
Harvey Barnes may be in blistering form at one end of the pitch – but he's thinking about keeping clean sheets as much as the defenders.
Albion's talented No.10 on loan from Leicester has five goals to his name already this season, and is an integral part of English football's most potent attack.
But the Baggies have still only kept one clean sheet in the league so far, and Barnes admitted it was something preying on his mind.
And instead of leaving it to the defence to worry about, he believes defending starts from the front.
"At the minute, a lot of our chances are going in which is great," he said. "I think we need to keep tight at the back.
"It will be nice to keep a few clean sheets but that’s starts from the front as well, pressing hard to stop them playing out.
"It is all good scoring three or four goals at the minute but we are not going to do that every week.
"We know that and the more games we keep clean sheets or keep the score down to one, the more wins we are going to get.
"We are always trying to improve going forward and at the back."
However, with goals galore up the other end, Barnes admitted it was 'exciting times' for the Baggies, particularly considering victory over Reading left them in the automatic promotion spots over the international break.
"It’s always nice being up and around there," said Barnes. "Our main focus is just being up in that top two if we can, pushing and staying with the pack.
"It’s a long season and we know anything can happen but the longer we can stay up in that top two, the better."
Albion struggled against Reading in the first half and went into the break deservedly behind before they moved through the gears in the second period.
"We were poor in the first half by our standards," admitted Barnes. "We spoke about it at half-time and knew we had to be a lot better and most importantly we knew we had to be patient.
"We knew what we are capable of and in the second half we have shown that.
"We kept our nerve. There was no panic. We knew we were going to create chances in the second half and we knew the game was going to open up.
"There weren't really many stern words (from Darren Moore). He just got the message across that patience was what was needed.
"We changed it a little bit and went to two number 10s instead of one to exploit their back five and I think that worked perfectly for us."
