West Brom’s Michael Appleton believes his side need to focus on more than just Robin Van Persie when they face http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Arsenal-c38429
West Bromwich Albion’s assistant coach, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Michael-c25261 Appleton has gone ahead and admitted that his side need to focus on Arsenal as a unit, instead of just looking to block out Robin Van Persie.
West Brom are set to take on the Gunners this Saturday, in a game that is turning out to be a must win for both the teams. However, Appleton believes that Van Persie is just one of the many match winners that Arsenal possess and hence it would be pointless
to just concentrate on the Dutch striker, while ignoring the rest of the team.
When talking about just what he expects his side to do and what he wants his side to avoid doing, Appleton is quoted to have said: "If you concentrate too much on Van Persie, they have three or four others who can easily destroy you on their day"
He then went on to add that his team’s defenders had all the information they needed and that they had been watching videos of all the Arsenal players, just to understand how they worked and how they might attack the West Brom defence.
"[Our defenders] have all the information they need to know about him, whether that's us talking to the players or being shown numerous videos on Van Persie and Arsenal's strengths as an attacking team."
However, Appleton believes that his sides defence has gone on to face a massive improvement in recent weeks and this might go on to help them pick up a point against the Gunners.
"From our point of view, defensively we have looked more solid," he added.
Appleton then admitted that the team’s ability to defend counter attacks, corners and set pieces was also at an all time high, which is why they could cope with the quick pace of the Arsenal side.
"We've defended crosses a lot better this year, we've been better on set-pieces too, we've defended counterattacks better.”
This season Arsenal have gone on to rely on the versatility, leadership and goal scoring ability of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robin-van-Persie-c31380 for far too long. In the absence of their captain, the Gunners often seem to be lost and appear to be missing that creative spark on the
pitch, which could help them win games.
However, Arsene Wenger has gone on to admit that Van Persie is not the only player on the team who can win games and it is now a matter of the team proving their manager right, as they take on West Brom this coming weekend.
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