West Brom boss Carlos Corberan wants two players in every position

The Baggies boss is yet to add new faces to his squad this summer as the club work under financial restraints, but Corberan ideally wants 22 squad players to select from, though he accepted that figure is flexible.

Albion’s senior squad, including the likes of youth graduates Zac Ashworth, Ethan Ingram and Caleb Taylor, stands at 26. That includes returning loanees Alex Mowatt and Cedric Kipre, as well as lengthy injury lay-offs Daryl Dike and Martin Kelly.

“If in the Championship you don’t have 22 players and two players in every position, it’s going to be difficult,” Corberan said.

“The number of substitutes we can make is the same as last year – five – but we can now have two more players in the bench than last year. The squads with more good players are going to have some advantages. They’ll have good players to cover all the needs of the games.

“In every game you can use 15 players, plus goalkeepers. The squad...you can arrive to the season with 15 top players, or 20.

“With 20, you cover every position. Then you have two good players in each position. This is my target.”

Corberan wants to reshape his squad and Albion needs players out to allow room and balance the books.

EFL members voted last month on increasing the size of substitutes benches. Championship benches have increased by two to nine, while League One and Two remain at seven. Five subs can still be made.

Corberan continued: “After, if you cannot get 20 very good players, then you can stay with 18 because maybe a winger can play both sides, and perhaps a young player can take a space to help.

“That way, it can help you to have more money to bring in a proper number nine, or a number six, or a number seven – just an example.”

Albion’s patience has been required this summer with the Baggies among a select group of clubs yet to confirm any arrivals during the off-season.

Corberan is focused to wait for the right loan players to become available after he highlighted the importance of the market to the club.

He added that the free transfer market, another avenue the club are exploring, is not an easy one to negotiate and said the best talent unattached to a club command the biggest wages.

On assembling his squad, he added: “Fifteen is the minimum you can have, 20 is the maximum. Then other teams like Burnley last year, for example, had 23 or 24 outfield players. They wanted a big squad and this strategy was successful. Maybe they could do it because of their resources.

“The key for me is to see what are your possibilities and then what can you do inside those possibilities.

“Don’t be thinking about what we could’ve done last year or the year before, because it’s totally different to this year. We never can have frustration, it has to be adaption.”