Carlos Corberan offers Tom Fellows prediction after West Brom v Birmingham City
Carlos Corberan has said that he believes that Tom Fellows will be a very good player after he made a brief cameo for West Brom in their defeat to Birmingham City.
The Baggies lost 3-1 at St Andrew’s on Friday (6 October) having taken the lead initially through John Swift, but when Albion’s top goalscorer picked up an injury midway through the second half, he was replaced by the 20-year-old.
Fellows, who made four appearances, including one start for West Brom during the 2021/22 Championship season spent last season on loan with Crawley Town, but Corberan has heaped praise on the winger suggesting he could feature more in the coming weeks.
As quoted by Birmingham Live on Tuesday (10 October) he said: “I think Fellows is going to be a very good player in the Championship. Still, he is going to need time but, for me, I was very pleased with what I saw of him on the pitch and normally we are going to watch him much more on the pitch.”
The Spaniard’s options are limited in attack, especially after Swift’s injury which he discussed saying: “If I’d have known he was going to get injured, I’d have taken him off and not Wallace. In football, you never know. He was fine, nobody asked for the change, and then he suffered an injury in the calf.”
Opportunity
The nature of being a young player at a club like West Brom is that you will have to wait for your opportunity to show why you deserve to play week in and week out, the challenge now for a player like Fellows is to show that he is capable of taking it.
Corberan has never been afraid of tinkering with his sides or about giving young players chances to impress on the field, but his style of football is incredibly demanding and Fellows will have to match the standard which is expected of him to be a success at The Hawthorns.
His spell with Crawley last season was a tough one to judge, failing to score in 28 League Two starts and only picking up two assists in over 2000 minutes of action. Those stats wouldn’t have seen the Baggies make a move to sign him had he not already been on their books this summer.
But at only 20 years old, there is still plenty of time for Fellows to find his feet at Championship level and Corberan’s comments would suggest that he is willing to give the Baggies’ man that time to settle into the first-team environment while ensuring he gets valuable minutes on the pitch.
Given the current injury woes at The Hawthorns, Corberan doesn’t have many other choices until some players get back to match fitness.
In other West Brom news, Kevin Kilbane has been left confused by Jayson Molumby’s international call-up