ALAN Pardew is encouraging a 'risk-taking agenda' in his side's quest to end a winless Premier League sequence.
Pardew is yet to taste victory at the Albion helm, with the clash against Arsenal on New Year's Eve providing one final opportunity for points in 2017.
Despite inheriting a team on a continued run of poor form, Pardew believes Albion have "turned a corner" in the latter stages of December. And he wants to see his players abandon "low-risk football" in the coming year.
"We need to deliver with a risk-taking agenda. You can't win games if you don't take risks and this team was definitely on low-risk football," said Alan.
"I'm trying to change that and we're definitely taking more risks now. I think that will reward us in the goalscoring column and hopefully not hurt us where we've been really tight. We've had three clean sheets since I've been here. We're really sound at the back.
"Our last two performances - although we haven't got the win - have been strong. Almost since the second half against Manchester United - we turned a corner that second half - we look a lot more settled.
"The quality coming back to me - Dawson, Phillips, Brunt - they make a big difference to this starting XI. They're all fit and available so we're starting to see signs that we can make some progress."
The Baggies boss certainly has faith in his troops. In fact, Alan was full of praise for the whole club as both players and staff work towards climbing the Premier League table.
"What I've found is a club that's well run, well organised with a good set of professionals that's just down on confidence a little bit, down on momentum. Trying to change that has been difficult but we're starting to show real signs of that if I'm honest.
"I had instant success at other clubs but not so here, yet you probably wouldn't find a club with better infrastructure or a better group in terms of camaraderie and togetherness. If we can just get a result, get some momentum and confidence, I think we could do quite well."