Erik Pieters believes Albion are getting better and better as a defensive unit with each game they play.
The Baggies head into Bank Holiday Monday’s clash with the Royals (ko 3pm) at The Hawthorns on the back of seven victories and six clean sheets in their last eight Sky Bet Championship matches.
Pieters has played at centre-half alongside the skipper Dara O’Shea in all five of Albion’s fixtures since they returned to action following the break for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with Carlos Corberán's men winning four of those games and recording three shutouts.
And the experienced Dutch defender insists Albion’s incredible form is as a result of the team working their socks off together in both defence and attack.
Erik said: “We’re getting better and better each game as a defensive unit. We’re understanding each other more and more each game too.
“When we have a hard time in the game, everyone stays together and works hard. We defend altogether.
“We defend as a team and attack as a team.
“I’d love us to continue playing like this and to carry on getting three points.
“It’s so important to get clean sheets because you know that just one goal could be enough to win a game.
“We have the quality up at the top end of the pitch that will always give us opportunities to create chances, so our job as defenders is to stay as solid as possible and keep as many clean sheets as possible.
“We’re not a team who are not just going to sit back though. We want to go and get a second goal to secure the victory.
“It’s really pleasing that we keep winning and winning with clean sheets.
“We had a lot of really good momentum going before the World Cup break, so it was a shame to have to stop playing.
“It was always going to be tough the first game back but we got the victory at Sunderland we’ve gone on from there, losing just once at Coventry.
“We’re looking forward to our next game against Reading, which will be the first of 2023.
“We obviously want to start the new year with a victory but we know it’ll be tough as they’re in a similar position to us in the table.”
