Carlos Corberan calls on West Brom to handle different challenges

Early goals conceded in either halves of their last fixture condemned Corberan’s side to a frustrating 2-0 reverse at Blues.

Albion shipped goals 10 minutes into the clash and seven minutes after the interval in the second city. Form on the road has been sketchy, a polar opposite to Albion’s almost-perfect Hawthorns record under Corberan – the Baggies have lost three away games in a row.

Albion also conceded early in each half at Bristol City in the FA Cup as well as in the same competition at Chesterfield. The head coach also highlighted a game Albion struck back in at Luton as an example, with the 2-1 victory at Sunderland before Christmas another.

“Both, it’s the understanding of the game and the level you compete in the game,” Corberan replied when asked if Albion needed to be sharper physically or mentally.

“For me the moment of the two goals (at Birmingham) impacted too much on how we developed the game, how we played the game.

“The first goal created one level of anxiety with a worst position in attack that didn’t help us attack in the moments we could use the ball.”

The Spaniard said: “The message in the rest time was let’s be more patient when we break their first press in our attack.

“Let’s be more intense in defence, because if we start losing the ball without creating chances the game is very interrupted for long balls and second balls.”

Corberan leads his troops into a home clash against fellow play-off hunters Blackburn tomorrow.

The head coach wants to see his team adapt to different type of opponents better. He felt Albion struggled to contend with a physically powerful and intense Blues line-up.

“As soon as I saw their first XI I could imagine the type of game we played,” he said.

“We talked with players before we started about which type of game we could have if they played 4-4-2 diamond, to fix details of our attack and how we defended.

“Sometimes when you play away and they arrive with a win sometimes the first minutes will be like this, with more intensity.

“They have physical strikers, especially Lukas (Jutkiewicz), it is difficult to defend the diagonal balls, they created those, corners and second balls.

“I thought the team adapted well in defence. But it’s true in attack, the intensity of the pressing was faster than our speed to find solutions.

“For me we didn’t understand the game well to attack. We adapted well to defend, in the second half there wasn’t many chances conceded, it was a game very interrupted, with a lot of long balls and second balls, they were better than us making this game.

“We didn’t make it our game. We cannot play like them because we are different teams, they played one game, physical strikers with second ball, we tried to dominate, use the width of the pitch, we tried to do things that didn’t work.”