Club News

Dorrans out to conquer Europe again

Baggies midfielder tops charts after Burnley display

ALAN Irvine is hoping for another 10/10 performance from Graham Dorrans today as Albion look to record a fourth successive victory away to Liverpool (ko 3pm).

The Scotland international claimed two assists before getting on the scoresheet himself in last Sunday’s resounding 4-0 success over Burnley.

His performance ensured that not only was he named in the Barclays Premier League team of the week by our friends at football stats website WhoScored.com, but he also claimed a midfield berth in the European team of the week with a perfect 10 score.

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Bayern Munich’s Mario Gotze joined Dorrans in the star midfield line-up, but it was the Albion man who shone brightest as he was named player of the week among Europe’s top five leagues.

It was a rare stat that meticulous head coach Irvine admitted he was not aware of, but he is hoping Dorrans can register a repeat of his feat again this week.

“You’d better not tell Graham that stat - he might come in wanting Ronaldo’s contract and that might be a problem for us!,” Irvine joked.

“He was terrific (against Burnley) and it’s a shame because he’s been overlooked outside the club, but he’s scored one and made a couple and he played really well throughout the game.

“I wasn’t aware of the stat. I look at a lot of stats and a lot of games over the week and there are certain ones that I will focus more on so I hadn’t seen that.

“Hopefully he and others will get 10 out of 10 this week.”

Irvine continued: “He’s a player who goes about his job in a very professional manner and he’s a great trainer.

“He works hard on his game and he stays out late after training to do some extra work.

“If you ask him to do a job he tries to do that to the best of his ability.

“He would probably choose to play as the man off the front given his opportunity to pick the team, but he’s been asked to do different jobs in different games, including that one, and he has done them all very well.

“He’s a player I admired before I got here and he’s a player I continue to admire, and now I know him as a person I like him even more.”