Carlos Corberan: West Brom point at Coventry might have been fair
Carlos Corberan felt Albion were decent value for a point at Coventry City – but were made to suffer early at the CBS Arena.
The Baggies' five-match winning run came to an end with last-gasp frustration at the Sky Blues, for whom Viktor Gyokeres' 93rd-minute penalty condemned Corberan's men to defeat on a night victory would've put them firmly into the play-off picture.
Coventry were the better team for large parts against their visitors, who were backed by almost 4,500 fans. The head coach felt his side struggled particularly in the first half hour as bright Coventry were well on top and dominant with and without the ball.
Mark Robins' hosts had most of the efforts at goal, albeit many from distance, but Albion had their moments, notably through a glorious opening for Tom Rogic, cleared off the line in the first half, before Darnell Furlong's header was seen off by a goalmouth scramble after the break, when Corberan felt his side had improved.
Asked for his assessment of the defeat, Corberan said: "I think it was a very tough game. We were suffering a lot in the first 20 minutes, they were better than us in attack and defence. In our structure we couldn't stop them, in attack we couldn't dominate them.
"The last 15 minutes of the first half we started to control better, without impacting enough, but we started to attack better. The team started to control the game, or stop the control of Coventry. We didn't create the chances we wanted to create, and we conceded counter attacks that were dangerous.
"The game in the second half was different. In defence we didn't suffer - I don't remember any big actions in defence in the second half, but it's true that we couldn't create enough chances to affect the game. "There was one moment when the game was very balanced, when it would take one mistake to win the three points.
"It started to look as though the draw might be the result, we did our last change - Diangana for Swift - and we played Gardner as a ten to try and win more challenges up the pitch and to have Diangana with the balance, but we lost one challenge in the space where I put a player to challenge and they create the counter.
"We didn't stop the duel in the middle of the pitch and they were better than us in this action. One player after that, against four, because it was Gyokeres against O'Shea, Molumby and Wallace, Pieters. I think we win the challenge and we keep the ball between us but it arrived to him and Pieters had no other solution but to try.
"I don't know if it was a penalty action or not, but it's true that maybe because there were a couple of minutes in the first half the referee didn't, he whistled. We couldn't keep the clean sheet we wanted."
He added of Rogic's golden chance around half hour: "I thought it was a clear moment for us to score and we didn't do it. The defender saved the goal. They were making us suffer more but even though maybe a draw would've been a fair result, it was a game when we could score at any moment."
Defeat in their game in hand sees Albion remain 16th in the Championship, when three points on their rivals would've lifted them up to eighth.
Corberan surprised some onlookers by naming the same attack-minded side, with Rogic and John Swift both in a forward-thinking midfield, that had seen off Rotherham at home for a fifth win on the spin last weekend.
The head coach introduced Jayson Molumby 10 minutes after the break in a bid to add legs and numbers to his midfield. He felt the starting line-up was a worthwhile risk and not the reason behind defeat.
"I think I had the two possibilities to do, to keep Swift as a number eight and to put Molumby as a number eight," he added.
"And I made the decision with Swift and Rogic to play both, and the wingers.
"I was thinking that suffering having Swift as a number eight was a risk willing to take, but I think it was managing well.
"I didn't see it was the problem. The problem in the first 30 minutes we dropped a lot with the wingers to play a line of six in defence.
"The line of six makes us concede a lot of passes in front with just two midfielders in front, we couldn't press back on them.
"In the last minutes (of the first half) we told the opposite winger to not drop, to press higher and be more aggressive, and we changed to two in attack because the 4-3-3 was not working and we changed to have more players in the middle.
"And for me these two things worked but these are tactical things that now don't make sense because we lost the game."
