Albion No.2 Keith Downing has revealed that Somen Tchoyi and Graham Dorrans are both in contention for a first team spot this weekend against Everton.
Tchoyi has been out of favour recently as the midfielder struggles to come to terms with the side’s tactics when out of possession. The unpredictable Cameroon international, last featured for Albion in February as a second half substitute against Swansea.
Dorrans, who has again suffered from a number of niggling injuries this season, sat out Sunday’s defeat to Newcastle with a hamstring injury, but has returned to full training and is in contention to replace the injured James Morrison against the Toffees this Saturday.
Speaking about Tchoyi, Downing said the forward needs to be more consistent to force his way into the starting line up on a regular basis.
"He needs to maintain that consistency because he has an abundance of talent, he's a matchwinner, as we've seen before, and he can make an impact on games as he did at Fulham,” he said.
"But it's a case of him learning about positional play tactically, we know technically he has got it in abundance, but tactically it's knowing and understanding what role he needs to do as part of the team and those things are what we want.
"It's taken Roy so many months to drill that into him and obviously Somen needs to take it on board on a training day and a matchday.
"But we know his ability and he's in our plans for the final eight games.
"In fairness, in training he's attentive and listens.
"We did a session yesterday on shape work and he put his thoughts and movement into the game, he knows what we're trying to point out and where he should be, so it's about him doing it on a daily basis in training and games."
Meanwhile, Hodgson’s assistant said Dorrans would join Albion’s compliment of midfielders ahead of selection for the game against David Moyes’ men.
"We have Scharner, Dorrans, Andrews, Mulumbu - it's one of those areas we're strong in.
"If we're going to lose a player from a particular area then it is better we lose it there.
"It's a great opportunity for someone.
"Keith Andrews has just come in.
"Paul Scharner was left on the bench on Saturday and had an opportunity to come back in the second half.
"Youssouf Mulumbu has been continually playing there, while Graham has had to stop and start with bumps, bruises and knocks, so hopefully he will get an opportunity in the next eight games.
"He (Dorrans) had a slight hamstring strain but hopefully he will be back in training tomorrow, which will put him in the picture for Saturday."
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