Irvine prepared to take risks
Head coach Alan Irvine is ready to risk his stars' fitness to kick start West Brom's season.
The Baggies host Everton on Saturday, with Irvine yet to field summer signings Joleon Lescott, Georgios Samaras, Silvestre Valera and Sebastian Blanco.
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Lescott has trained after a knee injury while Samaras, Valera and Blanco have all lacked match fitness.
But while they remain without a Barclays Premier League win, Irvine is prepared to throw them in against his former club.
"They are getting closer to where they would like to be, but the fact is we can't just wait before we expose these lads to first team football," he said.
"We've had to throw in Brown Ideye and Jason Davidson before they were ready, but we had no choice.
"We will definitely have to bring players back before they are at the levels they need to be. That's the way things are, we're not really going to have much choice as far as that's concerned.
"It is an extra worry because you'd much rather put 11 players out there, and a group on the bench, who you knew were in peak condition.
"We have had to throw some people in, a little unfairly to them, where they've had to go in at the deep end."
But Irvine insisted the Baggies are taking every precaution to make the right call.
He said: "It is, hopefully, a calculated gamble because we have plenty of information about them. They all wear heart rate monitors so we can tell exactly how they are feeling at the end of sessions. We can work out the training load and intensity.
"You are not relying on just your eye but you still use that to a large extent. You now have evidence to back it up.
"Everything we're doing is hopefully calculated rather than being on a whim."
Goalkeeper Ben Foster trained on Thursday after pulling out of England duty with a thumb injury, while Youssouf Mulumbu (hamstring) will be assessed ahead of the game along with Victor Anichebe (hernia).
Irvine added: "We're hoping Youssouf will be okay because he's had one or two issues leading up to other games already, so I'm not ruling him out for this weekend."
Everton manager Roberto Martinez admits an element of fear may be the root cause of their defensive problems this season.
The Spaniard has also not ruled out the possibility his players became complacent about the traditional strength they have at the back but he is determined to correct matters by the time they take on West Brom.
Everton had the league's third-best defence last season but in three matches they have already conceded 10 goals - relinquishing leads three times in their first two games.
Martinez believes they have been unlucky in that virtually every mistake has led to a goal but he also thinks the players may have hit a mental hurdle.
"It is easy to see we have been a little bit slack in our defensive duties and we have been punished too easily and conceded too many easy goals," he said.
"It has been one of those situations where everything that could have gone wrong in our box has gone wrong.
"There may have been a lack of defensive intensity and that is something we need to correct but I do see a team that has improved from last season, even though the results are not as good as they should have been.
"We conceded in the 85th minute against Leicester (in the opening match) when we had got ourselves ahead twice.
"The late goals we conceded against Arsenal (to concede a two-goal lead) is more of a feeling (of) maybe wanting to see the game out and developing a bit of fear of something to lose at that moment of the game had a big say.
"We are quite aware of what we have to improve but the margins are very small. There is no need for drastic revolution, it is more about having a real focus and increasing that defensive intensity in specific moments.
"We had 15 clean sheets last season. Maybe we got a bit relaxed knowing we were so good in that area and we got punished and that is something we need to put extra emphasis on."
Martinez will make a late check on midfielder Leon Osman (calf) and striker Samuel Eto'o (groin).
Midfielder Ross Barkley (knee) is still a month away from regaining full fitness, but striker Arouna Kone (knee) and defender Bryan Oviedo (broken leg) are both edging closer to a return after playing in the behind-closed-doors game against Stoke in midweek.
Source: DSG
