Football
PA Sport 9y

Tony Pulis: West Brom intentionally exploited Burnley's set-piece issues

West Brom boss Tony Pulis revealed his side deliberately targeted Burnley's vulnerability at set-pieces in Sunday's 2-2 draw.

The Clarets looked to be on their way to a vital victory against one of their relegation rivals when they took a two-goal lead at Turf Moor.

But Chris Brunt headed in a corner just before half-time to change the momentum of the game and Brown Ideye profited from another corner midway through the second half.

Burnley have conceded 14 headed goals this season, more than any other team in the Premier League.

Pulis said: "We look at set-plays very closely and we thought they were very vulnerable at the back [post]. The first goal we got in there. The second goal was a little bit of a block that we work on.''

Burnley boss Sean Dyche felt Ideye's goal should have been disallowed for a foul by Gareth McAuley on David Jones and refused to see it as a particular weakness.

"I'm no more concerned about that than can we progress through our passing, can we affect the games by scoring more,'' said Dyche.

"They're all part of the game. You have to be concerned with every element of the game. You can't restrict it to one element.

"We have to defend better at set-pieces, like every other team has to defend better, so it's not just us.

"You've got to remember the quality of delivery coming in is better than last season. Certainly with the consistency of delivery -- and the will and desire to deal with that is there, but it has to be with the format.

"The structure's good and we just didn't deal with two set-pieces, although one's a foul.

"We're conceding more than we'd like but there is that fine balance. We're close to it, we're improving, we're 17th in the Premier League, so overall we're in good shape.''

Burnley have conceded 11 goals in their past four games, and six in two games to West Brom, who beat them 4-0 at The Hawthorns in September.

Jones said: "They're things that you look to tighten up on and you work on them.

"They troubled us earlier in the season at The Hawthorns with the set-pieces and twice again here. But we'll work on it and look to go again on Wednesday [against Manchester United].

"There's little things that are not quite right but the performance was decent. Maybe we were a little bit edgy defending the set-pieces but we're more than capable. We've been defending them well recently and it's just disappointing.''

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