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Carlos Corberan: Pain motivates West Brom

Carlos Corberan admits his Albion squad are motivated by their pain from earlier this season.

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Carlos Corberan (Photo by Adam Fradgley/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images)

Things could have hardly got any worse for the Baggies barely six weeks ago when, shortly into Corberan’s tenure, they sunk to the bottom of the Championship.

Albion were inside the relegation zone upon Steve Bruce’s sacking in October but, under Spaniard Corberan, they now sit 17th and go in search of a fifth straight win for the first time in three years tomorrow against visitors Rotherham.

Former Huddersfield boss Corberan revealed the promotion hopefuls’ plight earlier in the campaign is enough to inspire his troops.

“When you are in this position in the table, you have the feeling that these players have suffered a lot,” said Corberan. “And when you have this suffering, I think it is a positive, because you don’t want to have this feeling again.

“So you fight against this type of situation, which is uncomfortable for everyone. And what we need to do is fight every single game to avoid another situation like that one.”

Corberan will assess the fitness of Kyle Bartley today while fellow centre-half Semi Ajayi has been ruled out for up to 10 days with a shoulder problem.

The head coach said his desire to lead Albion to victory does not alter regardless of the run of results the Baggies have achieved.

He said: “Every time we are on the pitch we want to achieve the three points, the main part of my work is to prepare the team to win games.

“I have full desire to go and win against Rotherham, the same as against Sunderland, the same as the first game with Sheffield and the next one.

“But that is not because of the previous result, but because it is our responsibility and our motivation to see the team competing for the three points and to make our people happy and proud of the team and to move from a very uncomfortable situation – we know we are still in this fight.”