Club News

Irvine: Saido will be back

Head coach backs striker

SAIDO Berahino has been challenged to overcome his dry spell by becoming a key player for Albion during the coming festive period.

The Albion striker has not scored since scoring a late equaliser in the 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace in late September - although he came close during the closing stages of last weekend's game at Queens Park Rangers.

Albion take on Manchester City on Boxing Day, before travelling to Stoke on Sunday and West Ham on New Year's Day.

But Alan Irvine is confident Berahino will recover his form.

"He’s working hard in training and I’d expect we’d see something of Saido in the next few games without a doubt," said Irvine.

"I thought he looked sharp when he came on against QPR. I saw Toure’s goal against Crystal Palace which was from a similar angle - it hit the post and went in. Saido hit the post and it came out. It was a terrific piece of play and would have been worthy of a goal but it didn’t go in for him and that’s kind of where he is at the moment, whereas the matter of only a few weeks ago everything was going in. 

"He’s going to be fine. He will come back and I’m sure he’ll be better for it. Like any goalscorer in any team.. Suarez, Sturridge, Aguero, Diego Costa... they’re all really important because they score the goals. 

"Charlie Austin, these are the players that can suddenly change things and Saido was doing that earlier in the season and like any player hit a difficult little patch. He’ll be back."