Carlos Corberan: Injury turmoil no West Brom excuse

The Baggies took their Premier League aspirations to the final day at Swansea but despite a 3-2 defeat, Sunderland wrapped up sixth with victory elsewhere.

Head coach Corberan held talks with his players and the club yesterday and had insisted work for next season starts now. Albion faced adversity in the shape of key personnel absent in the crucial Championship run-in, but the Spaniard is not interested in excuses.

“It’s always important to arrive at the game with the highest number of players you can have,” Corberan said. “It’s true we’ve had some injuries that has been a pity for us, because after the market was closed we had an injury for (Grady) Diangana for a lot of months.

“We had the injury of Dike for nine months, we had the injury of (Dara) O’Shea playing in the international break for three months, the injury of (Jayson) Molumby with Ireland for some weeks.

“We had an injury for Okay (Yokuslu) against Millwall from one kick for weeks, and then we played many games, and the player who replaced Okay was (Nathaniel) Chalobah, and he turned his ankle and had an injury for some time.

“From one moment we’ve been losing many players, including Alex Palmer the goalkeeper, we arrived to the key moment of the competition without all the resources.

“This is an excuse? No way, because there is no type of excuse I can take. For me it’s a good fact we moved from the relegation space, where I started to work, and a fact we didn’t achieve the play-offs...we always tried to be in the highest position we can.

“You need to use the feeling you have in a positive way, to start to work to achieve next year what we didn’t achieve.”

Corberan, 40, meanwhile, said after defeat in south Wales he will have a “proper conversation” about details for the summer ad beyond.

The former Huddersfield boss, appointed in late October, added it was ‘his understanding’ to continue the togetherness built at The Hawthorns between himself, chief executive Ron Gourlay and head of recruitment Ian Pearce.

“As soon as you know your position, that you will play in the Championship, the sooner you work and the better for us,” Corberan said to BBC WM.

“We will talk to the players and start to prepare for next season in terms of training, in terms of style and in terms of players.

“I don’t know what is going to happen, first I will talk with the club and will put details, we will have the proper conversation because the summer is a long one, but the faster we move to create a squad we want to create the better for us.”

When asked if he will be part of the summer rebuild and beyond, Corberan added: “This is how I understand the things – it is very important to keep the togetherness between the scouting, the CEO of the club and the head coach.”