Five things Tony Mowbray is telling West Brom players to do in games as club targets Premier League return

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West Brom have shown marked improvement since Tony Mowbray took over at The Hawthorns, which is hardly surprising given the pedigree the legendary manager brought with him.

As things stand, West Brom look like they can secure a top-six finish and make it into the play-offs this season. The Baggies are in fifth place right now, with a two point cushion over seventh-placed Bristol City.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
3	BurnleyBurnley	37	20	15	2	50	11	39	75
4	SunderlandSunderland	37	19	12	6	55	34	21	69
5	West BromWest Brom	37	13	17	7	47	33	14	56
6	CoventryCoventry	37	16	8	13	52	48	4	56
7	Bristol CityBristol City	37	13	15	9	47	40	7	54

The Championship table can change very quickly, though. West Brom cannot afford to drop points in the final run-in if they are serious about cementing their place in the play-offs and getting back to the Premier League.

After the latest round of games in the Championship, the Baggies will be feeling confident, but Tony Mowbray has outlined the key things he needs his players to do in order to keep this going until the end of the season.

• READ MORE: Jed Wallace reveals the best side West Brom have faced this season but he ‘actually thinks’ one side is even better

Tony Mowbray wants West Brom to ‘hurt’ the opponent

Speaking via the club’s official channels after the hard-fought 1-1 draw against Burnley on Tuesday night, defender Torbjorn Heggem discussed how Mowbray has been setting his team up with the intent of being more attacking.

Heggem said: “He’s talking a lot about being on the front foot, being offensive, keep the ball, try to attack, try to hurt opponents. I think we are doing better and better. I feel like we are getting a really offensive team. We are not a team that’s afraid of playing against the top teams.

“I think we are getting some really good performances, too. That shows we are capable of being in the play-offs and hopefully our way to promotion this year.”

Indeed, over the last couple of weeks, West Brom have taken points from both Leeds United and Burnley, which is not something many teams in the second tier can say.

West Brom have gone from being a very defensive, well-organised unit under former manager Carlos Corberan, to becoming a more expansive, exciting proposition under Mowbray. That’s just one of the many differences between Corberan and Mowbray, with plenty of change on and off the pitch.

• READ MORE: West Brom’s Mikey Johnston says play-offs ‘in our hands’, outlines six key Championship fixtures where club has big advantage

Tony Mowbray reaches impressive West Brom landmark

The game against Burnley on Tuesday night saw Mowbray reach a huge milestone with West Brom, taking charge of his 150th game for the Baggies.

That tenure comes over two spells with the club, of course. Mowbray was previously in charge of West Brom between 2006 and 2009, before returning in January of this year.

Mowbray becomes the first West Brom manager to achieve this landmark since Gary Megson, which says a lot about the longevity of managers at The Hawthorns lately, as Megson hit that milestone way back in 2004 (and added another two games as caretaker manager in 2017.

However, even by reaching this huge total, Mowbray is still only tenth on the list of West Brom managers based on the amount of games they have been in charge throughout the club’s history.

Still, with the success he has achieved in the early days of his second spell here, we’d be very surprised if he doesn’t climb that list very quickly over the next few months (and hopefully years) to come.