Blackburn v West Brom preview: Carlos Corberan addresses Albion squad and changes
Carlos Corberan has addressed the difficult decisions he has rotating his Albion squad – and admitted he would play all 25 players if he could.
The Albion head coach emphasised he agreed to all the new additions at The Hawthorns over the summer and though several are yet to taste prolonged minutes, they are ready to feature at any time.
The Baggies head to Blackburn on Wednesday night to tackle the hosts’ 100 per cent record from five Championship games. Albion, meanwhile are in a sticky spell of four games without a win, the joint-longest in the Spaniard’s two-year reign. That run has never extended to five games under Corberan.
A consistent starting XI has been a feature of the season so far. Of late there have been more alterations in midfield and attacking positions but the back four has remained the same. Seven of 11 summer signings are yet to start in the league after 10 games.
“When you are part of a team you need to know there are different possibilities,” Corberan said. “You are playing as a starter and you have to work hard to stay as that.
“There are those starting on the bench. Some of these players don’t play because you have a maximum of five subs, they need to work hard to get minutes and show they can help the team. “After you have players who are not involved. We have 25 players here – 25 players that as a club we like.There is no players we don’t like as a club. Me as a coach – nobody told me you don’t have to have them.
“Every single player here, according to our possibilities, is a good option for us and I have agreed on this.
“I have 25 players, 22 outfield and three goalkeepers. Of these 25 I can involve 20, so five players I like are out of the squad. I can play a maximum 16. So four I like are with five who aren’t playing. Nine players you cannot use.
“If you ask me what I would like? To have these 25 players involved, on the bench and then put them on according to the game possibilities. When you cannot do this you have to make a decision before games.
“You could decide to keep the group – like at the start of the season you keep the first 11 for many games in a row. We kept the bench (the same), more or less.”
Outfield players Callum Styles, Gianluca Frabotta, Paddy McNair, Devante Cole, Lewis Dobbin and Mason Holgate – who is carrying a quad muscle injury – join goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith in yet to make a Championship start. McNair, Holgate and Wildsmith are yet to play a single league minute.
Corberan admitted some changes are simpler to make than others, owing to position.
“To make a change in the attacking part of the team is a need for me during the game,” added the head coach.
“Changing a centre-back during the game is not a need. Normally the physical values of a centre-back are different to that of a winger. So to change the front four of the team is more normal, than the need to change the back.
“Can you change the back of the team? Yes. But we didn’t do it many times because I didn’t think we had the need.
“We put Styles on against Middlesbrough. Styles I like a lot as a player, the problem for Styles is I like Heggem a lot as a player. I like Paddy McNair as a centre-back but I am watching our two centre-backs very stable doing well in the things they are doing.
“With the need to improve, but I am seeing a couple with a lot of stability so far, and Furlong the same. I am probably giving consistency because I like what I’m seeing from these players.
“Does it mean Paddy can give similar or better things? For sure. Every case is different. Paddy is new to the club, without pre-season. when he arrived he had a knee problem, and then in the start of the competition the line of four was giving a good consistency.
“We have been close to achieving the results we have been talking about (Sheffield Wednesday and Oxford) and part of the stability is the line of four. For example I put Frabotta against Sheffield in the last minutes. You can see if it works or doesn’t.
“If Heggem is playing as a left-back then normally I am not going to put Frabotta and Styles on the bench because I am not going to involve three left-backs. So I have to sacrifice one of these, not because I don’t like, because I have to value who is going to be more useful to us. Always these things are going to happen.”
Corberan, whose side head to Ewood Park with an identical record to their hosts, stressed that players cannot afford to down tools or ease their workload just because they are not playing the desired minutes.
“This is the only possibility you have, when you are in an elite club, as a part of this squad, you need to accept this,” said the Spaniard. “You have 24 team-mates. You may start with one group and then after...I use the example of Fellows last year. Some players give up in this challenge, and you cannot. It is your responsibility to insist and work hard – when you’re in the first XI or not in the squad. Elite football is not easy, otherwise it would be for everyone.
“It’s the same if I told you that I will only work hard when I’m winning games. What does that mean, that I am not going to work hard if I draw or lose? I must work hard whatever the result.
“The players must do exactly the same. If I only work hard when we win, I couldn’t be a football coach. We are going to win, draw or lose, that’s football.
“The players must be ready to work hard when they start, whether they’re on the bench or not in the squad. They must adapt to the scenario.
“(Jed) Wallace was playing in the first XI once in ten games this season. He only played one. It’s a new challenge in his career, but football is a challenge. The past only helps you to get to now. For me as the coach it’s the same. In this present moment, we must beat the challenges we are going to face.”
One move levelled at Corberan is not having Cole, the experienced free agent summer signing from Barnsley in League One, at least on the bench as the only available senior striker to ease the load and add competition to top scorer Josh Maja whenever the latter has been withdrawn in games. Corberan has otherwise used his deeper forward, or wingers such as Wallace, Karlan Grant or Dobbin, to lead the line late on.
And Corberan admitted some regret with Cole. He said: “We have Cole as another specific striker and he can play with Maja too, but it’s true that in the decisions I am making he has been more times not involved with the team than involved.
“It’s true that he didn’t make his full debut. There have been possibilities to do this before and probably this is something I can regret, that I haven’t used him more.
“At the same time, when you need to pick 20 players, from 25, five aren’t going to be involved. For sure they have things they can add to the team.”
Holgate, the on-loan Everton defender in his second spell at the club, is one of those yet to start and he will miss the next couple of games due to a quad injury picked up on international duty with Jamaica.
