West Bromwich Albion manager Sam Allardyce expressed his frustration as his team’s defensive frailties again showed up in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Fulham in the Premier League.
Albion were fortunate to be only one goal behind at halftime but after making tactical tweaks for the second period, the hosts roared back into the match to take a 2-1 lead.
West Brom appeared to be on course for their first home league win under Allardyce, only to be denied by Fulham forward Ivan Cavaleiro’s late equaliser.
“We should have won it,” Allardyce told reporters.
“When you go out and dominate for the first 25 to 30 minutes of the second half, and get 2-1 up, that should be the end of it. But then our defensive frailties let us down again.”
In their first eight league games under Allardyce, West Brom have taken five points from the 24 available and conceded 24 goals at an average of three per game. They are second bottom of the table and six points below the safety zone.
“We cannot expect to score three goals every time to win a game, and it is a huge disappointment not to see it out when we were 2-1 up,” Allardyce added.
New loan signing Mbaye Diagne made an instant impact with the assist for the second goal and Allardyce said he would like to make two more additions to the squad.
However, the former England boss he ruled out a move for Arsenal’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
“I would love it to be Ainsley Maitland-Niles but I don’t think that will be the case, but we need another quality player or two if we can before the window closes on Monday,” Allardyce said.