Tuesday night’s 2-0 victory at Rotherham saw the return of West Brom captain Jed Wallace, who also scored the second goal.
Hopefully, Jed Wallace, the captain of West Brom, has overcome his shoulder issues as he returned to action admirably against Rotherham United on Tuesday night. Wallace, who made his comeback last week after missing two games, will play against Stoke City when Albion hosts them at The Hawthorns at noon on Sunday.
In stoppage time of the 2-0 victory over the Millers, the captain scored his third goal of the year, sending in a free kick from the edge of the penalty area off the underside of the crossbar to secure the points and make sure Albion got back on track after losing to Sunderland and Leicester City back-to-back.
After being forced off at Cardiff City at the end of November due to an awkward landing on his shoulder after a challenge with Bluebirds defender Mark McGuinness, Wallace missed both of those games. However, he returned to action earlier than expected, defying a three-week absence prediction.
With the Potters, who are currently without a manager, coming to the Black Country this weekend, Wallace will likely see more playing time under Carlos Corberan. After a flawless half-hour run-out on Tuesday, he may even be a candidate to return to the starting lineup.
“The lads are saying by shoulder strapping put me off balance and made me score the free-kick! Shocking really,” Wallace smiled. “The shoulder was alright to be fair, nothing a few paracetamol and a bit of old-school tape can’t fix. Right now with the adrenaline I could probably run through a brick wall and it’d be alright to be honest but it might be a bit sore in the morning!
“I’m just happy to be back playing, I love playing for this club and love playing football, nights like at Rotherham make it worth it. I’ve been lucky, touch wood. I’ve not missed many games in my career and I’ve been lucky coming here to play most games. I feel for the fans and the manager because it’s a lot more stressful from the sides, on the pitch you feel you have some control in it. The longer I’m on the pitch the better.”
Despite those defeats, the fact that Albion were then able to eventually sweep aside a team who, despite being at the bottom of the division, have taken points off Ipswich, Leeds and Southampton this season, was an impressive response, but if you watched Albion in training every day and witnessed the attention to detail and the demands reinforced by Corberan, it’d probably come as little surprise.
“It comes naturally to be honest now, we’re 14 months into working with Carlos and we’re still have one maybe two meetings a day minimum – sometimes in training we’re pressing mannequins and he’s at the front like it’s his first day at the club with the passion he has and how strict and organised,” Wallace revealed. “It’s not by luck, 10 clean sheets in 21 games, with how well drilled we are defensively. It’s hard work on the training ground but when you go and keep clean sheets it’s worth it.
“One thing with the manager is he has immense belief in his own players, if I was to go up front maybe I’d think of the things I can’t do, and he’s the first to say ‘I’m putting you here because of the things you can do’ and it’s the same with a lot of the players. There’s nothing the manager hasn’t micro-analysed on every single player in the squad, it’s so well-drilled I can tell you what the right-back and left-back need to do.
“The meetings and everything, you can see it coming out, and everything making an impact. I think the subs this season have been a real strong point for us, people coming off the bench, no sulking or egos, everyone comes on to give 110 per cent as part of a successful squad, that’s what we need.”
