Carlos Corberan rages at what West Brom players did in win v Birmingham at The Hawthorns
Carlos Corberan has revealed that he is “not happy” with the way West Brom defended set-pieces in the second half against Birmingham City on 3 February.
Speaking to the Express & Star on Friday (9 February), the Albion boss said that everything they worked on the Friday before the game was not what he saw from his players in the 1-0 victory over the Blues.
He added that the more time the Baggies have to work on defending set-pieces the better as he believes it’s an area they “have to fix” despite beating their West Midlands rivals and keeping a clean sheet at The Hawthorns.
“If you were telling me was I happy after seeing that opportunity, no, because the goal can change [everything],” said Corberan. “We would not be talking about the same things we are talking about now, we would not talk about how good the changes have been, we would be talking about that it has not been enough to win.
“The difference between this and the other thing is not a lot, but that’s why I say I am not happy with how we defended set-pieces in the second half.
“Is it normal? I think so. When you put new players, who still didn’t have enough time to work with new behaviours – even though on Friday I insisted on working on set-piece defending – after all the changes and emotion in the game, what we worked on Friday was not what we did on Saturday. I didn’t know which players would be finishing the game.
“What we do in set-pieces depends on who is on the pitch. So now the more time we have to work on these actions the better we can be because it was something that we have to fix. I was not happy about the way we defended set-pieces in the second half and how we attacked corners in the first half.”
Carlos Corberan is a perfectionist at West Brom
It’s pretty clear that Corberan is a perfectionist down to the smallest detail and that he has set extremely high standards for his players at West Brom.
It isn’t too much of a surprise after he spent years working alongside Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United, where the Argentine and his staff were known for being very meticulous about their work.
The Albion boss is looking for his players to win every battle on the pitch as he believes that will put them in the best position to achieve promotion to the Premier League this season.
There is no doubt the Spaniard will have been working closely with his squad on set-pieces on the training ground this week as he will want them to defend those situations better against Ipswich Town on Saturday (10 February).
Although the Tractor Boys have been in indifferent form lately, the Baggies will have to be at their best if they want to come away from Portman Road with a positive result.
In other West Brom news, the repayment date for Guochuan Lai has passed as a Warmfront Holdings development has emerged.
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