West Brom v Swansea City: Pulis backs Brown to hit purple patch

Brown Ideye’s Burnley goal will boost his confidence ahead of a Premier League clash with Swansea City, says West Brom boss Tony Pulis.

West Brom manager Tony Pulis hopes Brown Ideye’s second Premier League goal can serve as a confidence booster ahead of his side’s clash with Swansea City on Wednesday.

The Nigeria international arrived at The Hawthorns from Dynamo Kiev for a club-record fee believed to be in the region of £10million during the close-season, but has struggled to find form. 

However, Ideye came off the bench to score West Brom’s equaliser in a 2-2 draw at Burnley on Sunday, adding to his only previous top-flight goal in a 3-1 defeat to Manchester City on Boxing Day.

While expressing optimism that Ideye can put his indifferent start behind him, Pulis is also aware of the need for goals to come from elsewhere in the team.

“We’ve got Saido [Berahino], Browny and Victor [Anichebe], so we need goals but we also need goals from other areas of the pitch, which we’ve talked about,” he said.

“Browny’s had a tough time. He hasn’t played badly, but he’s continually missed opportunities.

“When you spend that much money on goalscorers you expect them to put the goals away.

“[Sunday] will give him a lot of confidence and I’m very pleased for him because he’s a nice kid and he works very, very hard.”

Swansea, meanwhile, failed to follow up their impressive victory at Southampton with another win at home to Sunderland on Saturday, coming from behind to rescue a 1-1 draw.

Garry Monk has added the likes of Kyle Naughton and Jack Cork to his squad in recent weeks and, with Ki Sung-yueng having returned from the Asian Cup and Wayne Routledge back in training, the Swansea manager could soon be facing a selection headache in a number of positions. 

However, Monk insists the options can only be seen as a positive.

“Football changes quickly,” he said. “I’ve had to use the whole squad already this season.

“It’s nice to try and get a settled side, of course it is, but the way it’s gone for us with certain situations we’ve had throughout the season for different reasons, we’ve had to use different personnel.

“There’s been no problem with that.

“Obviously you try and judge every game on its merit for who’s best suited to that, and that’s how I’ll choose the team going forward.”

Saido Berahino could return to the West Brom starting XI after being named on the bench at Burnley following controversial comments in the media, while Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson serves the final game of a three-match ban.

Swansea were 3-0 victors when the sides met at the Liberty Stadium in August.