Carlos Corberan: West Brom players now have belief in squad depth

The Baggies saw off Cardiff 2-0 at The Hawthorns to record a fifth successive home league victory with a four-point gap between Corberan's men and seventh.

Mikey Johnston marked his full Albion debut with the opening goal after just 29 seconds and the hosts had to wait until 10 minutes from time for substitute Andi Weimann, another new loan signing, to net the second.

Corberan has had the option to rotate players since adding three January additions. John Swift was left on the bench at Ipswich on Saturday but emerged to net in the 2-2 draw and Weimann did likewise on Tuesday, turning in a cross from fellow substitute Jed Wallace, as the skipper was also afforded a rare breather.

"It's necessary to have these options," Corberan said. "It's something key, because if you don't rotate the players, at the end you have more injuries.

"For us, as a club, it was necessary for us to add more attacking options, because we needed to increase the options we had. Right now, we're using the players, because it's necessary to have that impact from the bench."

The Baggies boss added: "They know that we have now good options. They believe in the team-mates they have. Our attacking players know that if they're not at 100 per cent, we have others who will be.

"They understand it's a strength we have and must use. It can never be a problem, to have two or three players competing in every position, now we have those alternatives. Unfortunately we lost (Daryl) Dike, something we didn't want because he is a big important player."

Albion were unable to build on their rapid start against the struggling Bluebirds. Johnston's opener was one of the fastest goals in the club's modern history but the hosts then found it difficult to generate openings in a contest lacking in entertainment generally.

The head coach referenced a difficulty in adjusting to the opposition's set-up. He said: "It's important to make our stadium to compete at home and to achieve the results we are doing at home.

"At the same time it's important to analyse in detail the things we need to do better and to play with the same determination from the beginning but extending it.

"Cardiff changed their shape with a line of five, 5-3-2, for us it's been a long time since we played against a five. We needed to adapt and find solutions.

"We didn't make the chances we wanted to create. Both teams were a little flat at the beginning of the second half. I liked the energy we had from the bench."

"For us it's important to build something special at home," the Spaniard said of extending a home winning run to five games ahead of Friday's visit of high-flying Southampton: It doesn't mean we don't build something away, and that's something we want to address."