West Brom boss admits West Ham loan youngster challenge

The 19-year-old Northern Ireland international, a serial goalscorer at youth level with the Hammers, switched to the Baggies on loan in the January window.

But Marshall has been limited to just a handful of substitute cameos and boss Corberan said it is normal for young players to be restricted in early-career loan moves – something Marshall was well aware of when plotting his loan.

"It's a pity because he's a player with a lot of good skills and he's in a position where there is still a lot of growth," Corberan said. "He is in a growing process but he isn't going to be just ready with game minutes. It's part of this.

"We have players who went on loan to places where we wanted them to play, and they didn't, Reece Hall (to non-league Hereford), we sent him on loan and he has come back because he didn't play, but part of his development is to have the experience where you're not playing.

"It helps you to mature, and helps you to grow. You don't grow only when you play, you grow when you adapt your resources to the demands.

"Some players have the experience, they have used this time, this process and they've brought these things with them when they've needed to compete. Other players still need to grow – when you are 17,18,19 years old and you go into one level of the Championship, to a club like West Bromwich which is in a good position in the table, you cannot go there in your first loan thinking this is under-21 level.

"He knows this. I remember in the first notes that he put in the club, he was very conscious of this – it's a process that he needed and wanted to do.

"At West Ham, he trained six times with the first team. The other parts were with the 21s. They're competing in the same league as our 21s and how many players from our under 21s are in our squad? Only in the cup we did."

Marshall only moved from his homeland to West Ham's academy in January 2022, aged 17, having only made two senior outings for Linfield.

But the teen hit the road running in the Irons' youth set-up and thrashed in goals at under-18s and under-21s level, including 19 goals for the under-21s this season before switching to Albion.

Marshall made his senior Northern Ireland debut last summer, before two more European Championship qualification caps earlier this season.

Corberan previously admitted he added Marshall to his forward options in case of any injury relapse to Daryl Dike, before the latter's latest long-term setback.

"The Championship, I respect a lot this competition," Corberan added. "From since he arrived here, he has had three moments in the Championship, plus training all week with the players, which day by day is going to help him to grow.

"You can watch this, or just watch how many minutes he plays. I think he's still growing, he has players in front of him which'll challenge his position.

That's why the target of the loan is the growing of the player, which he is doing – but the growing isn't always related with minutes of the games."