Pardew: I picked the wrong team

Cape Town - West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Pardew felt he contributed to Manchester United's 2-1 win at the Hawthorns on Sunday by not picking the right team.

The 56-year-old made just one change from the team that held Liverpool to a goalless draw in midweek, with Oliver Burke coming in for Hal Robson-Kanu.

Pardew handed Burke his first Premier League start with the intention of causing United problems, but the hosts struggled to get going in the first-half.

Trailing 2-0 at the break to goals from Romelu Lukaku (27') and Jesse Lingard (35'), Gareth Barry replaced Claudio Yacob for the restart and the veteran midfielder pulled one back for Albion 13 minutes from time.

Chris Brunt was also introduced in the second-half and it was from his corner that Barry scored, with Pardew admitting he should have made changes from the start.

"In hindsight, the team I picked was not the right team. I should have put some fresh legs in there," he told Sky Sports after the Baggies went 16 league games without a win.

"They did so well at Liverpool, and as a new manager I wanted to show some faith in those players, but I should have maybe made two or three changes.

'We looked leggy, we looked not up to the ball. But in the second-half we were a lot better and had a lot more conviction to our play - that was the problem.

"We've got a full stadium, playing Manchester United, but we never really got the crowd going. I thought the crowd were quite rightly very quiet today, and that was down to us.

"We're at home. You must generate more excitement, more moments than we did today. Thank goodness, we scored, for our fans really, to give them a lift that we can score a goal.

"We know this isn't going to decide our season this game, it's the ones going forward. It might be a lesson we've learnt today.

"[Confidence] is definitely a factor in terms of risk. You can't play this game unless you take risks. We didn't take risks with our passing. We had a lack of energy and I have to take some blame for that."