West Brom selection verdict emerges for Hull City showdown
Carlos Corberan has been tipped to make the call to stick with the side that beat Coventry City when West Brom face Hull City by Joseph Chapman.
The Spanish manager made several changes to his side for the trip to the CBS Arena, including the inclusion of Pipa ahead of Darnell Furlong at right-wing back and the decision to drop Brandon Thomas-Asante to the bench in favour of Jed Wallace.
Injury issues and a lack of investment during the summer transfer window have left Corberan with an incredibly small squad to pick from and while he likes to change his side to exploit an opposition’s weaknesses, Chapman believes he could stick with what worked last time out.
Writing for Birmingham Live (1 November) he said: “All eyes are on Hull, but do you change things for the sake of it? Or if it isn’t broke, must it be fixed at all?
“Corberan is pretty relaxed about the prospect of making changes once he identifies how best to exploit the weaknesses of the opponent, such is his attention to detail, and it was why Pipa’s inclusion ahead of Darnell Furlong wasn’t merely a question of rotation.
“He knows that as many as 16 players on any given match-day will be involved and, especially with the Baggies’ current injury problems, all senior personnel will play a part.
“You wouldn’t blame Corberan in the slightest for preferring to stick with what worked so well on Monday while being able to rely on Thomas-Asante to be introduced later on and impact the game in the second half.”
Tough call
West Brom will have had almost a whole week off by the time they face Hull City at The Hawthorns and there is every chance that the Baggies opt to go unchanged seeing as their new-look side performed so well during the win against Coventry.
Corberan doesn’t have plenty of players to choose from in his squad but has been known to tweak his team to suit their opposition and it would be a slightly surprising call should the Spanish manager opt to line up in the same way.
There were moments where Albion rode their luck against Mark Robins’ side and while they got away with it on Monday (30 October) it may be taking one risk too many to name the exact same starting XI against the Tigers on Saturday (4 November).
Undoubtedly Corberan will have something up his sleeve that none of us will expect and could well find a way to make 11 changes to his side as West Brom look to extend their winning run to three matches.
In other West Brom news, Corberan has called for the introduction of VAR to the Championship after an incident in the Baggies’ win over Coventry