Steve Bruce sets key West Brom target

West Bromwich Albion boss Steve Bruce wants his side to try and secure a finish in the top ten following an underwhelming 2021/22 campaign, speaking to his side’s media team ahead of this afternoon’s clash against Reading.

The Baggies previously looked as though they would be fighting for promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking after going unbeaten in their opening ten league games of the season.

However, they were unconvincing in some of those matches during that run and these cracks soon turned into something more severe as their previous place in the play-offs continued to look less and less stable.

Finally falling out of the top six at the latter stages of Valerien Ismael’s tenure in late January, they failed to enjoy a successful start under successor Steve Bruce as they won just one point from a possible 15 in his opening five league games in charge.

That poor set of games all but ruled Albion out of the promotion race and they have failed to be consistent enough since then to give themselves an outside chance of forcing their way back into the top six.

Despite this previous target no longer being achievable, Bruce wants his side to aim as high as they possibly can as they look to end what has been a disappointing season on a positive note.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s game at the Select Car Leasing Stadium, he said: “We’ve still got pride to play for and six points to play for in the next two games.

“We’re not going to finish where we all wanted to finish this year, so let’s at least try and get ourselves into the top 10.

“It’s still not good enough, but it’s certainly better than finishing in the bottom half of the table.”

The Verdict:

A finish in the top 10 compared to a finish in