West Brom's Carlos Corberan: It's a challenge to 'go again'
Head coach Carlos Corberan challenged his depleted Albion ranks to channel the basics from earlier in his reign in a bid to rebuild some form and momentum.
Corberan’s threadbare Albion are nursing a midfield injury crisis for tomorrow's clash at Stoke City, where they look to end a run of seven winless games on the road – six in the Championship.
A victory would keep the 11th-placed visitors in contention as outsiders for a play-off spot, but the Baggies’ cause at the business end of the campaign is being hindered by unavailability and a drop in performance levels, particularly evident over the Bank Holiday double-header against Rotherham and QPR.
The Spaniard, through, pointed out that it is not just his side struggling for form in recent weeks with rivals also faltering. Corberan also believes the effort earlier in the campaign to climb away from the Championship drop zone should not be underestimated or forgotten.
After Monday’s home draw with the Rs, winger Jed Wallace blasted Albion for “bottling” a top-six opportunity and suggested finishing in the top six would ‘almost be unjust’.
Asked his thoughts on Wallace’s comments, the head coach said: “It’s true that when we talk, him or me personally after the games, of course some times it’s an emotional impact of the feeling after the game.
“But he was right, in terms of the fact we didn’t find our best level and we lost a possibility to add six points and only added one.
“If you analyse the last five games of nine other teams in the best positions of the table you will see it has not been as easy for any other teams to win more than one game – only Preston has been in better form.
“All the other ones from Middlesbrough (in fourth) to position 13 or 14 have only had five or six points from the five games, we are included in this point. We never like to compare with the ones not achieving, we like to compare with the ones that can achieve, but this is the consequence of the Championship.
“You can never be thinking (easy games), you need to respect QPR, respect Rotherham, respect Stoke City, respect Sheffield United, respect every single team in the Championship.
“In this moment the players have arrived to the last with a lot of games in the legs – after my group of players beat a lot of difficulty because we arrived from the bottom to this point and to change this dynamic demands a lot of energy and effort – a lot.
“Sometimes after you spend a lot of energy, then you have some difficulty, to find the energy again – even the style and ability – is not easy and is a challenge and one we need to solve, it is not a challenge we are going to leave.”
Millwall, Blackburn, Norwich, Coventry, Sunderland and Watford are other sides in top half or play-off places to have slipped up over the last month
Corberan continued: “I don’t know how many games it can take to find the solution, sometimes you find a solution for one game and then you lose the players for the next one and you need to go again, the situation demands to go game-by-game, we can’t be thinking for the one after because for example we are waiting for Okay (Yokuslu’s injury), after the injury he could be in the next game and then no, then he could be in the next one, and then no and then the next one.
“The best scenario is watching the players you have, how we can be competitive, going back to the basics of when I arrived to the club, be the most competitive team we can be, this is everything we need to do. We would like to have a different scenario – I don’t know, everyone would like to be in the best position in the table but only two teams are in a perfect position.
“But for me the situation now demands a lot of personality, character, commitment, it’s true we don’t have the same number of players, possibilities, momentum of the season, we need to compete in this scenario.”
