Express & Star

Ally Robertson: A West Brom break? No chance, it’s time for Carlos Corberan to coach

It would be fantastic to continue our winning run by beating Stoke on Saturday but I believe the important thing is the four-week break coming up.

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It will be great for Carlos Corberan to have that time with the players. I remember Johnny Giles before we got promoted saying to us all the time ‘this is the way we’re going to play and this is what will happen’. And it all happened.

I’ve heard a few fans say ‘they’ll have a couple of weeks off’ – no! If I was the manager I would see it as four weeks to put things right.

It is a chance to get the team spirit back, get things organised, possibly get a style across which will be crucial to our chances.

When you talk to the fans all they want to see is a manager or head coach come in, show commitment and a way we want to play. In the games before he came in it looked like we didn’t know what we were doing.

It will be great if we can beat Stoke to sign off for now. They are not a great side for us, so it would be great to win three in a row before the World Cup.

In the four weeks off Carlos can get them organised, get his ideas across for the run of games to come around Christmas.

He comes across as a passionate coach and it seems that’s what he wants to do here. He has to be a manager to the squad as well.

If he can build that camaraderie, commitment and team spirit then I think we can have a really good run after the break. We’ve won two on the bounce now and most managers or coaches would want the games to carry on.

Should we, hopefully, beat Stoke on Saturday the last thing a fan or coach or manager would normally want is not to play again!

That’s the funny thing about it, you want to keep it going when you are winning.

Had we lost three on the spin everyone would be waiting for break with bated breath. But we have to look to the four weeks where the manager can get his coaching into them.

It will be tough for him in January, I’m not sure whether he will be able to buy anybody, but if he can get a couple of top loans to keep the team going we have a good chance at pushing up the table.

In this league anyone can beat anyone, there’s no outstanding team, as long as we can keep a commitment and organisation we won’t be far away. His biggest task was getting the team playing the way he wants them to.

But we’ve had two wins, the two clean sheets, it looks as though he’s beginning to get them organised.

We were giving away that many stupid goals at the end of Steve Bruce’s reign it was untrue.

We looked like we were going to give up two or three goals every game.

OK, we’re never going to keep clean sheets all the time, but if we can make sure we are defending and organised as a team then we can have a good run.

Kyle Bartley was the match-winner at QPR. He’s been up and down like a yo-yo this season!

He’s made mistakes but the new manager has come in, he’s played well, scored the winner – what a start for him.

Now he has to keep proving it to Carlos. When a new guy comes in and picks you then you have to prove you are worth it.