West Brom: Roy Hodgon plays down Stoke City threat

Feb 26 2011

Roy Hodgson believes his West Brom players need to concentrate on their own game rather than worry about the threat posed by Stoke ahead of their Barclays Premier League fixture on Monday.

Hodgson has not ignored the danger of Stoke's set-pieces and Rory Delap's long throw-ins but has spent time working out how to hurt Stoke.

A win at Stoke for the first time in 28 years would take West Brom through the 30-point barrier and leave them only two behind Tony Pulis' men.

Hodgson admitted: "Every week, you come up against a team which has a slightly different focus to its play. At the start of the week, you begin to prepare your team around that focus.

"However, although it is a cliche, it is important we do things right as far as we're concerned and that we don't totally change our game to suit the opposition.

"We must have a game plan of our own and make certain we attack and defend well against all teams," he added on the club website, www.wba.co.uk.

Hodgson also admitted he would like to have a player like Delap at his disposal.

"There have been many players down the years renowned for their long throw-ins but Rory Delap will probably go into the history books as the most successful and difficult long thrower to deal with because of the trajectory and pace of his throw-ins.

"There's also the size and organisation of the Stoke players in your box. That's added another dimension.

"There are two major advantages with a long throw-in compared to set-pieces.

"From free-kicks, you can adjust things, like the height of your defence and, even to the extent that Wolves do, push everyone out to catch your opponents offside.