West Brom v Millwall: Baggies looking to strike back and sign off in style

The Baggies welcome Millwall to The Hawthorns tomorrow off the back of successive defeats and will not want to allow a first wobble of the season become anything bigger.

Carlos Corberan’s men were poor, by and large, and deservedly beaten at Sheffield Wednesday last week and edged on home turf by an impressive Middlesbrough side in midweek. The Lions’ start to the season has been mixed at best, though Corberan expects a more fluid style of play under relatively new boss Neil Harris than perhaps the reputation that precedes Millwall.

Regardless of the outcome tomorrow, Albion’s head coach may be glad of the short few days off and then welcome period of training with his team during the break for international action. Corberan is happiest and most at home teaching his players, on the pitches and in the classroom at the training base in Walsall.

Last month’s international break – the first of a trio in as many months in the first half of the season – may have stunted momentum on the pitch somewhat as the Baggies, then without defeat, made a roaring start to the season.

This month’s break may be a useful time to pause and reset. This is the end of a busy – and highly emotional given the events at Hillsborough where fan Mark Townsend sadly died – week. It will be interesting to see how Corberan decides to rest and rotate, or not.

While the hosts are wanting to hit back, Millwall have been unconvincing, no more so than on Tuesday where they lost at previously winless Cardiff.

That has not been for boss Harris’s efforts to persist with a familiar line-up. Ten of the Lions’ players have started every Championship fixture so far, not too dissimilar for the Baggies, whose XI were unchanged for the first five league games, in which Corberan’s men remained unbeaten.

“I don’t know the reasoning behind this (their consistent side), sometimes it’s because of injuries, sometimes the reasoning is good performances, so it depends,” Corberan said.

“I don’t think consistency is a bad thing – if the things are working well. Things can work well with a positive result, or even if the result is not what you want.

“If you look behind you (at the white board with a plus and minus on it) – this is what I explained today, that the negative result can have positive and negative things.

“If you change the negative thing for a positive, there is positive and negative things, it’s the same. The fact that you win doesn’t mean you don’t have to do better things.

“And the fact that you lose it doesn’t mean that you are not doing good things. The fans are different, but for me when you are a coach or player the key is to go deeply, analyse deeply in the game to see why you didn’t achieve what you wanted to achieve.”

Asked what the big challenge is following successive defeats, Corberan replied: “To improve and prepare for the next one – no, the bigger challenge is to analyse the defeat in the way you can use it to improve as a team, to help the players the way to improve and what to avoid.

“Without belief we don’t win, without self-demanding you don’t win. The are the highest level of things. Sometimes after a positive result it’s more difficult to see things we didn’t do well. Sometimes after a negative result it’s more difficult to see the things we did well, but it’s easier to see the things we need to improve.”