Valerien Ismael praises emergency West Brom defenders

The Baggies were rocked by a coronavirus outbreak in the build-up to the game with defenders Cedric Kipre, Semi Ajayi, Matt Clarke and Conor Townsend all testing positive for Covid-19.

That meant – with Dara O’Shea and Kean Bryan injured – Kyle Bartley was Albion’s only senior centre-half.

But with Livermore and Reach joining him the back three, Albion stopped Reading from having a single shot on target.

“I think it was great from Jake and Adam to accept the position, to accept we had an emergency case and we needed their help,” the boss said.

“I have to say a massive thank-you to them for helping the side and securing a clean sheet.

“It will give us massive confidence and it’s given us more options going forward so it’s good a thing.

“When we trained on Friday afternoon we looked at them there for the first time.

“We played 11 v 11 and I got the feeling then that it looked really good.

“I just said to the guys do exactly the same tomorrow. Do it with conviction, don’t think about the situation just do the job.”

Ismael is a manager with immense faith in his 3-4-3 formation.

And he says he knew Reach and Livermore would perform because they fit the profile of what he wants in his centre-backs.

“This is the important thing with our principles”, the boss continued.

“We can say ‘okay, we have an emergency case’ we have our principles for each position and we know which players will be able to play in the positions.

“They just had to stay focused on the principles.

“When you stay focused on the principles you are on the right way. It was great to see.”

Ismael revealed after the Reading game Albion had made a request to the EFL to postpone the fixture such was the extent of the coronavirus outbreak.

And the Frenchman was surprised the governing body didn’t call the match off.

“It wasn’t just the positive cases – there was other players with symptoms,” the boss added.

“Now we will see how things go on.

“We explained the situation to the EFL. The doctor from the EFL said it was an outbreak but they forced us to play.

“We needed to accept that.

“Normally you think ‘safety first’ and you have responsibility towards your opponent as well but we had to accept it.

“We didn’t want to complain or look for excuses. We accepted the challenge ad we got our reward.”