Football
ESPN staff 9y

West Brom's Alan Irvine stands by decision to drop Saido Berahino

West Brom boss Alan Irvine stood by his decision to drop Saido Berahino to the bench after the Baggies' goalless draw against Hull on Saturday.

Berahino had a remarkable start to the season, scoring seven goals by the end of October, but he hasn't found the net since.

Irvine said he was just trying to give the 21-year-old a rest and hoped the striker would come back stronger from his recent lean spell.

"Saido is a young player and we have asked an awful lot of him this year," Irvine said.

"He has done really well overall but everyone could see in recent weeks things had gone off for him and he was struggling to find the form he'd had at the start of the season.

"I made the decision to take him out of the firing line to some extent, give him a bit of a breather and take a little bit of that pressure off him.

"Hopefully it will be good for him and he will respond. I have no doubt his form will return but like any striker you will go through spells where you don't play quite as well."

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