Club News

Rodriguez: Training trip a platform to build from

Jay Rodriguez is confident the club’s warm-weather training camp can act as a catalyst for a successful second half of the campaign.

The Baggies sit fourth in the Sky Bet Championship, three points off the automatic promotion spots, with 19 league games remaining.

Darren Moore’s side are spending five days working in Dubai at the NAS Sports Complex, a venue which J-Rod has used previously during his time at Southampton.

And the forward believes the benefits of the training schedule will stand Albion in good stead for the run-in.

He said: “It’s good to get away and train out here.

“The facilities are amazing. They are everything we were after and more.

“I came out here for four or five days when I was injured a few years ago. It’s nice to be back at a top-class facility.

“It’s great for everyone to be together.

“There’s plenty of team bonding on trips like this because we spend every minute with each other, we train together, eat meals together and relax together which is really important.

“I think this trip can be a platform for us to build on for the rest of the season.

“I feel as though it will carry us through to the end of the campaign.

“The weather is a big advantage of coming out to a place like Dubai. It makes a nice change. Back home it’s really cold at the moment.

“It certainly makes you feel a lot better.”

Rodriguez added: “There’s everything to play for in the league.

“We know how difficult each team is because we’ve played everyone at least once.

“We need to kick on and keep improving now. We’re ready for the fight and we are working 100 percent every day to achieve what we want to achieve.

“I think we have done really well in some of the games and that shows in some of the results we have produced.

“We’ve had a few slips-ups as well though. It’s up to us to keep working hard and keep improving.”