Carlos Corberan: West Brom's Alex Mowatt was ripe and ready to pick
Albion boss Carlos Corberan believed Alex Mowatt was ripe and ready for a crack at regular football – after making the midfielder wait for a start.
Former Leeds and Barnsley man Mowatt, 28, was a star of Albion’s pre-season but had to wait until September 23 for a Championship starting call.
The left-footed midfielder spent last season on loan at Championship rivals Middlesbrough having been in and out of action during his debut season at The Hawthorns following his arrival under Valerien Ismael.
And Corberan used the analogy of an apple ripening to explain the hold-up on calling on Mowatt this term – indicating the importance of timing and not going too early, or waiting too long.
“So it’s a question of time,” Corberan said. “You can watch an apple with young players and be thinking ‘ooof, it’s going to be a very nice apple’.
“But if you take the apple before the apple is ready you can be saying ‘what kind of apple is this?’ It is still not a (ready) apple. The same with him, no?
“If you leave the apple there, one day the apple is on the floor and not there, because the moment of the good apple finished and it disappears.
“This happens with players sometimes. Or sometimes you have another good apple and the other one needs to wait, because you’re eating another one that’s in perfect condition. I explain the process like that with him.”
Corberan explained that he sees Mowatt as a player to benefit as part of a five-man midfield ‘line’, as opposed to a four. In the last run of games he has typically played alongside Okay Yokuslu and just behind John Swift, with wing-backs offering width.
The Baggies boss also believes Yorkshireman Mowatt is fitter and slimmer than previously.
The head coach said: “If I explain with him...I like his pre-season, the first game of the season was a different game, against Blackburn a team that allows us to be very aggressive in the pressing.
“Is his strength to be aggressive pressing in a line of four? I don’t think so. Alex Mowatt is helped more playing in a line of five, I think so. He’s better defending forward than back.
“With a line of four a midfielder needs to defend forward and back, with a line of five they need to defend forward. At the end there’s a mix of things that made it appear in the moment now with the level he’s having.
“In another moment he would have showed this level? Probably yes because he’s a very good player and was my mistake to not use him before – or not.
“Now he’s ready to play in a five and four? I think so. He’s more slim, more fit and is someone with a special mentality to never give up and I like a lot his personality.”
Mowatt was a success story and regular feature over pre-season. Corberan added that he used the friendlies to analyse the midfielder, given he was fully aware of Yokuslu and Jayson Molumby’s qualities.
