West Brom v Huddersfield preview: Carlos Corberan wants points not an emotional reunion

The Terriers were head coach Corberan’s first role in English senior management and he led quite the transformation in two years at the John Smith’s Stadium.

How relegation-threatened Huddersfield could do with the Spaniard’s influence now in their steep uphill battle against the drop to League One – a level they have not played at for 11 years.

Corberan’s appointment at the Terriers in July 2020, from his position on Marcelo Bielsa’s staff at Leeds, was a month or so after Project Restart amid the pandemic. Huddersfield had just about limped to safety under Danny Cowley.

The Spaniard started excellently in his first full season but form tailed off badly. Nobody, though, could have predicted what was coming as the head coach led his side all the way to the Championship play-off final in 2021/22, only to be cruelly and narrowly denied by Nottingham Forest.

Corberan opted to leave for a huge job at Greek giants Olympiacos and, before long, found himself pitched up with a salvage job in the Black Country.

The 39-year-old is as passionate and intense as they come. He lives and breathes the game and his work and carries a lot of emotion with it. A reunion with the Terriers tomorrow is bound to stir feelings and memories, one would imagine.

“Against Huddersfield? No no!” Corberan smiled. “But every single day yes – you need to manage your emotions.

“Now I need to manage them, sometimes you don’t see what you would like to see but at the same time you need to understand why things are happening.

“For me Huddersfield is a massive game for us, not because I was working there, but because it’s very important for West Bromwich.

“And now what I want to create with West Bromwich is higher than any part of my past, with three points against that we want to win.”

Corberan’s reception from the away end will be interesting. Surely travelling Terriers, seeing the Spaniard for the first time since Wembley heartache, will acknowledge an incredible journey last term. On the flip side, though, there is some ire at how he opted to leave for Greece over the summer.

While Corberan, then 37, started his management career in West Yorkshire, Huddersfield arrive under slightly more experienced new management – with wily 74-year-old Neil Warnock leading his latest rescue mission.

“In these moments of the season determination is key to win the football games and there are two ways you can win games, in the motivation and in the need,” Corberan added.

“They have the need for the three points more than usual right now, it’s going to make them a very difficult team to beat, like Wigan on Tuesday night.

“We more than need, we want the three points, and need to mobilise every single small body of energy we can find to perform well, to give our best.

“The determination right now is very, very important to win football games.”