Express & Star

Carlos Corberan: John Swift should be inspiration to West Brom team-mates

Carlos Corberan wants John Swift’s renaissance to act as inspiration after declaring Albion need more players hitting top form.

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Swift was left out of the Baggies’ season opener at Blackburn last month, but has responded impressively, scoring three goals in the next four matches.

Corberan wants others to now follow Swift’s lead after admitting the likes of Jed Wallace and Okay Yokuslu, two of the club’s top performers last season, have room to improve.

Midfielder Yokuslu has been substituted in every match so far and the boss explained: “With Okay, we have not seen his levels yet. The level of the last year has not appeared this year.

“He wants to recover his level and is working to achieve this because the team needs it. It is very important.

“Wallace is another player who is important for the group to recover his best level. With (Alex) Palmer, Okay, (Cedric) Kipre and Wallace, they need to make steps.

“In football, unfortunately, things are not always perfect. Even me, I will be more creative and impactful in some moments and less so in others. The important thing is to see the reaction from the players in the negative moments. This week I saw an important reaction from those players.”

Corberan revealed he decided to leave Swift out of the starting XI for the season opener at Blackburn after being unimpressed with the 28-year-old in pre-season.

He explained: “John didn’t start the first game of the season and reacted. Right now he is one of the players making more impact in attack.

“This is important because if our players compete at the highest level they have, we are going to be a competitive team. If they do not achieve those levels, we won’t. It’s as simple as that sometimes.”