Danny Wright

Sun 12 February 2023 17:34, UK

It’s hard to pick out any faults in Carlos Corberan’s four and a half months as West Brom manager.

The former Huddersfield manager, who replaced Steve Bruce at The Hawthorns in late October, has steered the Baggies well clear of the Championship’s relegation zone and now has fans believing that promotion back to the Premier League is a firm possibility.

But the 2-0 defeat at Birmingham City on Friday night (10 February), suggests that any serious hope of promotion is fading due to the continuation of David Button in goals.

It’s probably harsh to pick on one player but it’s no coincidence that Button, 33, lost his place to Alex Palmer at the back-end of Bruce’s reign as Albion manager.

Button’s played 13 times in the Championship this season, keeping only two clean sheets and being involved in just two wins.

Palmer, 26, on the other hand has played 17 league games this term, conceded just 13 goals and kept nine clean sheets to help propel West Brom up the table.

But Palmer’s now injured and isn’t expected to return to action for several weeks, meaning Corberan has played Button in goals for the last two games.

Against Coventry, Button did well enough as he kept his second clean sheet of the season and took part in his second league win.

However, against Blues on Friday, the former Fulham goalkeeper was back to his former self.

Hannibal Mejbri’s goal was an embarrassing moment for Button, who was caught out massively by a clever free-kick from the Manchester United loanee.

He definitely could’ve defended Hannibal’s second-half corner kick too, which was converted by Krystian Bielik.

There’s a shocking stat on FBRef for West Brom fans to read into.

While save percentage isn’t a be-all and end-all stat for goalkeepers because there are a lot of factors in goalkeepers conceding goals, Button ranks as the worst in the Championship for the percentage of shots on target he’s saved.

Button ranks 31st out of 31 goalkeepers in the second-tier, saving just 51.4 per cent of shots that come his way.

At the other end of the scale, injured Albion shot-stopper Palmer ranks first with a 77.6 per cent save rate.

In the space of a couple of weeks, West Brom have gone from the best goalkeeper in the league to the worst, statistically speaking.

Corberan has no choice but to drop Button.

While he has years of experience on third-choice goalkeeper Josh Griffiths, the 21-year-old has proven himself to be quite an exciting young player in loan spells at Cheltenham, Lincoln and, most recently, Portsmouth.

At what point does Corberan concede that Button isn’t worthy of a place in the side and should be demoted to third-choice goalkeeper at The Hawthorns?

Palmer will hopefully be back from his injury around mid-March but there’s no time like the present to hand Griffiths a chance to show what he’s got.

Corberan has nothing to lose. Either play an older goalkeeper who keeps making mistakes or play a promising, inexperienced goalkeeper who might make the odd mistake too.

In other West Brom news, Corberan opened up on the future of Karlan Grant after his Swansea January transfer collapsed on deadline day.