"Is he alright? What's he feeling?" West Brom boss plans talks with duo

The Baggies' new head coach leads Albion for the first time of his second spell in a clash against one of his former clubs Middlesbrough on Tuesday night.

At his unveiling on Monday Mowbray, 61, admitted one of his main targets is to get his new side on the front foot and playing a more attacking brand of football to try to help turn Albion's glut of draws into victories.

Mowbray, the former title-winning Hawthorns boss, waxed lyrical about the wealth of attacking quality in Albion's ranks - including the CVs of struggling duo Jed Wallace, the club captain, and attacking midfielder John Swift.

Both have failed to make an impact as a first-team regular this term and seen action limited. Former Millwall star Wallace, 30, has started just three of 27 Championship fixtures ahead of the Boro trip. Ex-Reading schemer Swift, 29, has only 12 starts.

Mowbray revealed he will speak to the pair individually to try to get to the bottom of why they were on the periphery under ex-boss Carlos Corberan.

"I like good people, good human beings. I like footballers," Mowbray said. "These guys who at 16 leave school, leave home, go and play and have to bond with another group of people that they don't know much about but they learn about life growing up.

"I did it in an era where you literally had to clean the stands and you had to prepare the players' kit every day. You had to wash their boots.

"You had to look after them like you were the butler for them. It was ridiculous really and yet it so prepares you for what's coming. I like footballers.

"What I found in football clubs is mostly out of the 25 players in the dressing room, generally 20 of them are really good. Some of them have got a bit long in the tooth. They're not in the team. They're moaning. They're sulking. They're not happy.

"You've got to talk to them. You either bring them back on board or they have to go. They want to go anyway. You think it's best that they do go. There's no fall out. It happens."

Right winger Wallace has found himself second-fiddle to Tom Fellows since the latter's emergence as an academy graduate star over the last 12 months. Wallace had several starts as a makeshift frontman for Corberan last season while filling in gaps in a threadbare squad.

Attacking midfielder Swift saw last season wrecked by injury and despite a promising start in a slightly deeper role this time around, quickly found himself out of the side. Grady Diangana was preferred in the number 10 role in the second half of last season and Diangana, who netted against Stoke on Saturday, has found form of late.

The head coach added: "What I found at this club, there's not too many of them (moaners or sulkers) and yet from the outside looking in I might be thinking, because I'm on record, I've said I always thought Jed Wallace was one of the best players in the league. What a footballer, at Millwall. A one-man show really. He was devastating.

"Yet here I find him on the fringes of the team, on the cusp of the team. Is he alright? What's he feeling?

"So I sit down with Jed and I'll talk to him about my thoughts and what I'm thinking. Same with John Swift. You can throw John into that as well. What a footballer at Reading.

"Double figure goals most years. What a player. I've already seen how technical he is and how brilliant he is with the football. Are they okay?

"I'll talk to them. We'll have a cup of tea, sit down. They'll hopefully feel that I'm a decent human being. I'm here to win football matches.

"If you're at the level and you can do this and you can do that because this is how we're going to play, then it's going to be hard to leave them out of the team. Yet you want young (Tom) Fellows to keep growing. You want them to keep playing. His assists are amazing.

"There's a balance. As long as there's an understanding of what the job entails, we'll get on fine. Every football club, things rotate around in each window. Particularly in the summer when people's contracts expire, you have to decide whether you're going to give them a new one or they've got to go.

"That might be financial or he just doesn't quite do what I want him to do. So let's get somebody in who fits the piece perfect. It's just part of the job. I don't fall out with people.

"I don't send players away to train with the kids and you're not with our group. I don't do that. I've never done that. Unless they are, in my opinion, bad human beings who don't buy into the football club, don't buy into the culture."