West Brom manager Roy Hodgson: Impact sub Carlos Vela was part of my tactics against Stoke City

Roy Hodgson, West Bromwich Albion (Getty Images)

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West Brom manager Roy Hodgson is pleased to have a wealth of attacking talent at his disposal, and admitted his decision to omit Carlos Vela and Peter Odemwingie from his starting line-up was a tactical one aimed at stifling Stoke City’s style of play.

Hodgson elected a five-man midfield against Tony Pulis’s men and played Marc-Antoine Fortune as a lone striker. But after going a goal down, the newly appointed West brom boss brought on Odemwingie and Vela to salvage the game and it was the Mexican who notched the equaliser three minutes from time.

The West Brom manager has hailed his striking options and admitted he tailored his starting side to the physical nature of their opponents.

“Today we have the luxury of horses for courses to some extent because we have very different players,” said Hodgson.

“In Vela and Odemwingie we have two very gifted players. Today I wasn’t 100 per cent convinced Stoke would suit Vela and Odemwingie in the early part of the game. I always had the thought that they would be very useful players if the game opened up and fortunately I was proved right.

“If you do get good fortune sometimes you have to work very hard during [the game] to deserve that good fortune. During the 96 minutes if there was any good fortune the team’s performance certainly deserved it.”

Hodgson insists his team did enough to come away with a win after going a goal down, but a series of fine saves from Stoke’s Asmir Begovic prevented the visitors from securing the win.

“We did enough to get all three to be honest. Very pleased with the way [we reacted] after going a goal down,” he said.

“A goal down to a corner kick, which is not unusual having to play here, but I was very pleased with the response from the players.  Not only the way they kept going but they actually took over the game for large periods, created some good opportunities and fortunately one of them counted and there were a couple of chances where I thought we were going to get the winner.

“Let’s not be too greedy, and let’s be pleased we got at least a good point here, and most importantly I’ve had the chance to see the team play well in a difficult game.

“Tonight you’d be hard pushed to name a player whose performance I wasn’t certainly more than pleased about, and there were certainly one or two impressive performances as well.”

Hodgson also spoke about getting to know his squad, he conceded that picking his starting side at the moment was a difficult task having only been at the club for a short time.

“All the decisions are difficult for me at the moment because I don’t know the players having only worked with them for a couple of weeks.

“To say ‘this one is better than that one’ I need to work with them a lot more than two weeks. Certainly Carson’s performance was very solid tonight. What he had to do he did very, very well.  He is the more experienced of the two goalkeepers, which prompted me to give him the chance again.

“Learning every day about the players, the response has been extremely good. They’ve worked very, very well in training and I’ve been impressed with them.

“I defy any manager to work with a team for two or three weeks to be categorical about players. I’m learning every training session. I’m learning fast, they’re learning fast.

“Today was a big step forward. We played much better today than we did against Wolves in a difficult game. It gives me heart that if we reproduce that 10 more times with the determination and the grit and willingness, allied to quite a lot of skill – there are some talented players – I’m hoping we’ve got enough points in the team to stay up.”

As the players headed down the tunnel after the game there was a small scuffle involving Jonas Olsson. Hodgson has apologised for the incident and has played down any malice.

Hodgson said: “One of the players had a bit of a fight with a picture on the wall, which he won. It was a silly little thing where a player was upset about one of their players not wishing to shake hands.

“A team that plays with the heart, determination and strength of Stoke will forgive us for breaking a picture. We’ll pay for it and happily take the blame and say we shouldn’t have done it, but I hope it won’t take the gloss of what has been a very good game for West Bromwich Albion.”