West Brom’s Carlos Corberan has advised his players that winning games against stronger teams requires more than just being competitive.
The manager cited the losses to Southampton and Leicester as evidence that, although they performed admirably to stay competitive in games against elite teams, they ought to have done more to secure all three points.
This has been met with appreciation for the calibre of opponents in the Championship, with Coventry and Stoke mentioned as sides that can still pose problems regardless of where they are in the standings.
Corberan stated in an interview with the Express & Star [December 4]: “My opinion of the team remains unchanged despite our performance on Saturday.” We are a formidable squad, in my opinion, when every player is prepared and healthy.
“We can compete with teams that are high up in the standings, like we did against Ipswich, Southampton, and Leicester.” This year, though, winning football games won’t just come from competing against top teams; you will lose every time you step onto the field if your play isn’t at an extremely high level.
“You can see where Coventry and Stoke are listed in the table; these teams will expect of you what Ipswich or Leicester are expecting of us.”
“Both the competition and the opponent’s calibre are outstanding this year. We still need to put in more effort to win games, as evidenced by the fact that we played Southampton on Saturday and lost.
There are points to be gained.
Albion has already shown some extremely excellent results this season, most notably their 2-0 victory against Ipswich at The Hawthorns, but one-off performances won’t be sufficient to guarantee Albion’s future in a subsequent attempt to be promoted to the Premier League.
This might be interpreted as a rallying cry from the Baggies manager, asking his team to put in more effort and make sure they stay in close games where the outcome could go either way. To deserve such victories, they must exhibit that additional bit of excellence.
West Brom can compete against the best teams in the league, who appear certain to be promoted this season, as seen by their narrow losses to Southampton and Leicester. If Corberan’s team want to keep up with them, they will need to do more.
The season has gotten off to a great start, but at The Hawthorns, winning those kinds of games might be the difference between a good season and an incredible one.
