West Brom boss Carlos Corberan says no issue with Brandon Thomas-Asante's energy levels
Carlos Corberan is not concerned about Brandon Thomas-Asante’s physical levels as the Albion striker looks to rediscover a scoring touch.
Thomas-Asante, 24, has gone seven appearances and two months without finding the net and found openings hard to come by in the stalemate against Plymouth on Saturday, as did Albion generally.
Corberan’s Baggies are back at The Hawthorns this evening with lowly strugglers Queens Park Rangers the visitors.
With fellow strikers Josh Maja and Daryl Dike injured, much of the responsibility comes the way of ex-Salford striker Thomas-Asante.
“I watched Asante, especially in the second half, playing well, trying to create things by himself,” Corberan said of the frontman’s display against Plymouth. “The only thing I will tell you for him is try to control the offside situation better.
“But he didn’t have any clear option to score the goal, which would show (if he had) a lack of confidence or a lack of his possibilities to score.
“It showed as a team we need to create more, because our attacks are finishing more in set-pieces than in chances and set-pieces is something we need to improve. For strikers it is not easy to score in these situations.”
Thomas-Asante finished as Albion nine-goal top scorer in all competitions in his debut campaign last term. Of course the strikers have the responsibility, and one of their targets, is to score the goal,” Corberan said. “But what I watched (on Saturday) was him recovering one part of energy and speed I like to see in him.”
The head coach has said that winger Jed Wallace, the club captain, is also a centre-forward option while others are absent through injury. Wallace led the line well in the handsome win at Preston.
Young winger Tom Fellows, 20, is pushing for a start after two impressive cameos and is in Corberan’s thoughts from the off against the Rs this evening.
