Express & Star

Leeds v West Brom - Match preview

Tonight marks Carlos Corberan’s first return to Elland Road in more than three years since his Leeds exit.

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Carlos Corberan (Photo by Malcolm Couzens - WBA/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images).

The Spaniard used to call Leeds home. As under-23s boss he enjoyed league and cup-winning success and earned a promotion to work as coach under the great Argentine Marcelo Bielsa.

He helped Bielsa guide the Whites back to the promised land before an exit to try management himself, first with Huddersfield, briefly Olympiacos, and now Albion.

The Baggies’ 40-year-old head coach remains highly regarded in Yorkshire and has twice been linked with the post in under a year at The Hawthorns. There was interest.

His focus now, though, is on upsetting what is likely to be the usually intimidating Elland Road crowd under the lights this evening. Leeds, under new boss Daniel Farke, have taken just a point from two games and have Patrick Bamford, Liam Cooper, Stuart Dallas and Crysencio Summerville injured, among others, having seen an exodus this summer.

Corberan, however, is wary and praised the appointment of two-time Championship winner Farke. He said: “I think that Leeds, when you play against teams like this, or Southampton, or Leicester, when they are relegated from the Premier League they are going to have a transition period.

“Especially when you change the coach, and this happens normally in that scenario, but they still have Premier League players.