Stoke v West Brom - Match preview
Carlos Corberan is fed up of “ridiculous” league table talk as recent results have seen Albion take a tumble at the business end of the campaign.
The Spaniard insists focus has to turn to competing on the pitch while avoiding any potential distraction shown up in the standings.
The debate will rage as to whether Albion players, in similar style to last season, have shirked the finishing line with more than a glimmer of the play-offs in sight.
Indeed, some of Corberan’s squad date back to the pandemic-interrupted promotion campaign of 2019/20, where Albion made hard work of things after Project Restart and rather stumbled toward and over the finish line.
The only way the current group will banish that tag is to rediscover some of their confidence and form in these final six games, beginning with a trip to bogey side Stoke City tomorrow.
For a generation, a trip to the Potteries spelled trouble, but a couple of wins in a calendar year in 2019 might make the short trip more palatable now.
Alex Neil’s hosts are enjoying an improved run of form in the shape of one defeat in seven but similar inconsistencies have marred their season and keep Stoke down in 15th. The hosts lost their last home fixture, 2-1 to Bristol City.
The Baggies were flying when they dispatched Stoke with a comprehensive 2-0 win in the final game before the World Cup break in November, in a clash best remembered for Brandon Thomas-Asante’s stunning bicycle kick – Albion’s sure-fire goal of the season.
The run of form prior to Christmas under Corberan was nothing short of sparkling and, by the early stages of 2023, Baggies were dreaming of promotion via the play-offs rather than the living nightmare of the relegation zone the Spaniard inherited.
The problem was the form to transform Albion’s season was so good, everybody – Corberan not included – got excited and carried away.
It almost became a given that wins would continue, maybe not at the same rate of knots, but enough to secure a top-six place and repeat what Steve Cooper did at Nottingham Forest last season, from bottom to play-offs and promotion – at the expense of Corberan’s Huddersfield.
But a drop-off in performance levels and results since the end of January and beginning of February in reality should have put paid to any top-six chances. Such has been wobbles for rivals elsewhere, however, making up a five-point deficit is still achievable.
Any slim chances of breaching that gap – and right now it feels a long shot in the Albion fanbase – rest on ending the away drought tomorrow and the likelihood of winning at least five of the final six games.
It has been a miserable spell on the road for the travelling Baggies, winless since that magnificent comeback in the rain at Luton’s Kenilworth Road on January 14.
Major doubts have been cast on Albion’s ability to hit back and only a long-awaited win on the road will begin to refuel belief.
Okay Yokuslu and Jayson Molumby could provide a major midfield boost with a starting return for Corberan’s visitors.
n Albion's assistant coach Michael Hefele has been suspended from the touchline for two games and fined £1,000 for comments he made after the clash with Millwall. on April 1.
