Carlos Corberan: Don’t be too over-reliant
Carlos Corbean wants to ensure Albion are not over-reliant on midfield linchpin Alex Mowatt.
The Baggies saw their six-game unbeaten sequence to start the Championship end with Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday. Mowatt went into the clash a fitness doubt with discomfort in his adductor muscles and was only fit enough for the bench, with summer recruit Ousmane Diakite handed a first league start.
Corberan found his side 2-0 down at half-time at Hillsborough, though, and the head coach replaced Diakite, who alongside colleagues had struggled, with Mowatt and the latter prompted a response. Mowatt netted to make it 2-2, but Wednesday hit back immediately with Anthony Musaba’s winner.
“When you make a change it is because you are watching when things do not work well,” Corberan said. “But the team didn’t work well in general, as a team and individually we competed under our level.
“He was competing under his level, but more were, we were. For example me as a coach, I didn’t give the right solution or probably I prepared the game with many details that didn’t help show the level in the pitch.
“In this moment we needed to have more attacking player. I was close to putting Swift to a direct number eight to attack more and to introduce a number 10, or put Mowatt because Mowatt is a player that always helps the team to play from the back.
“As a team I don’t want to depend on any player. Mowey only trained once this week, on Friday, and if we want to be a strong team we cannot depend on one player to make the football we want.
“It’s important for Diakite to improve, of course he has to improve, and as a team we have to improve too because in the first 45 minutes we didn’t play in the level we have to play.”
Albion remained top of the Championship after Sunderland and Burnley dropped points elsewhere.
Corberan’s men return to action immediately tomorrow evening with a home clash against eighth-placed Middlesbrough at The Hawthorns.
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