Pepe Mel goes in search of his first win as West Brom head coach when his side host in-form Liverpool on Sunday.

The Spaniard has overseen a 1-1 home draw with Everton and a disappointing 4-3 defeat at neighbours Aston Villa since being appointed as Steve Clarke’s successor on January 10.

Wednesday’s loss at Villa Park came despite West Brom racing into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 10 minutes.

And any repeat of such fragile defending is likely to be punished by Liverpool, who are the Premier League’s second-top scorers with 57 goals from 23 games so far this season.

Four of those goals came as Brendan Rodgers’ side recorded a convincing 4-0 victory over Merseyside rivals Everton on Tuesday, which gave them a three-point cushion over Tottenham in the race for fourth place.

Luis Suarez was again on target in that game, scoring his 23rd goal in just his 18th Premier League appearance of the season, while Daniel Sturridge notched twice to take his tally to five in four matches since returning from an ankle injury.

Suarez and Sturridge have established themselves as the Premier League’s most prolific strikeforce this season, accounting for 36 of Liverpool’s 57 strikes.

And West Brom will need to contain the pair better than they did at Anfield in October if they are to take anything from Sunday’s match, with Suarez’s hat-trick and a sublime Sturridge lob inspiring Liverpool to a 4-1 win on that occasion.

Rodgers’ team head to The Hawthorns with five wins and a draw from their six games in all competitions in 2014 – form that is in stark contrast to West Brom, who are winless in four after their 1-0 victory over Newcastle United on New Year’s Day.

Injury-hit Liverpool are set to be boosted by the return of Joe Allen from an abductor problem, although Glen Johnson (various injuries), Mamadou Sakho (hamstring), Daniel Agger (calf), as well as Lucas Leiva and Jose Enrique (both knee), remain sidelined.

West Brom, meanwhile, will be without former Liverpool striker Nicolas Anelka, who suffered a gashed knee at Villa, and Stephane Sessegnon (groin). They did, however, sign Espanyol’s France Under-21 striker Thievy Bifouma on loan until the end of the season on Friday.

The Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk attacker was close to making a move to Anfield after lengthy negotiations on Friday but the two clubs failed to agree financial terms in time

Brendan Rodgers has insisted he is still optimistic that Liverpool can finish the season strongly despite missing out on Yevhen Konoplyanka.

The Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk attacker had undergone a medical with the Reds on Friday ahead of his proposed move, but the Premier League side were unable to agree a deal with the Ukraine international’s club before the 23.00 deadline.

The Merseyside outfit’s manager admitted he was disappointed that the club were unable to strengthen during the January window, but insists the Reds’ current squad is still more than capable of competing.

“I think it’s difficult in order to bring certain players in that are going to help us immediately,” he told the club’s official website. “The availability of the player, and of course the affordability, are always the two factors involved in getting a player in.

“It certainly hasn’t been because of a lack of work by the football club. There are lots of people who have worked tirelessly to identify and find the right types of players. A lot of those players haven’t been able to become available for us.

“Of course, as a manager, you would like to have strengthened – but I’m very optimistic with the group of players I still have available here. If we can keep those players fit, and maximise the availability for the rest of the season, we can have a great chance to have a really good finish.”

The 41-year-old then reiterated his belief in the current Liverpool squad, indicating his younger players will only get better this season.

“If you look at the position that we’re in with 15 games to go, we have shown consistently that we have the squad to compete,” he added.

“The benefit of the second half of the season is that there is still a lot of development left in a lot of our players. We have a lot of young players playing in the team who are growing and improving all the time.

“Them gaining experience and playing games, with the consistency of the team, adds up for a really exciting last 15 games for us.”

By Greg Stobart

Liverpool have failed in their attempts to sign Ukraine forward Yevhen Konoplyanka, Goal understands.

The Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk star underwent a medical ahead of a potential transfer but the Reds were unable to agree a fee and payment structure with his club.

Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre flew out to Ukraine to broker the deal earlier in the week, but was unable to find a breakthrough before Friday, setting up tense deadline-day negotiations.

The Reds were locked in talks with the Ukrainian club throughout Friday, but Oliver Cabrera, one of the key figures working on the deal, told Goal that an agreement was “very unlikely” early in the afternoon.

The player was understood to be very keen on a move to Anfield, but the Merseysiders and the player’s camp were frustated by Dnipro’s negotiating tactics.

“We have a very good relationship with the president Kolomoyskyi and he doesn’t want to sell the player,” Cabrera, who owns the agency Konoplyanka is signed to, told Goal.

“Yehven and his father respect that so a move is very unlikely.”

Despite an agreement looking unlikely as the 23:00 deadline approached, Liverpool remained positive that they would be able to finally agree terms, but their hopes were dashed as Dnipro stood firm.

The Merseysiders were desperate to force the move through after being gazumped by Chelsea in their atempts to sign Mohamed Salah from Basel.

Brendan Rodgers had previously made his annoyance known at missing out on Salah, and the failure to land Konoplankya will come as a further blow.