Okay Yokuslu believes in West Brom duo

The popular Turk shone as he helped Carlos Corberan’s side collect a first win of the new season, 3-2 against Swansea on Saturday.

Albion were assisted late on by signings Jeremy Sarmiento and Josh Maja, who both featured for the first time together from the bench. They enjoyed bright cameos and Yokuslu, himself substituted off at 3-0 up, admitted the duo have caught his eye.

The midfielder added that, despite the financial backdrop of Albion’s campaign, players must have no excuses about not performing in the Championship this season.

“We have been training together the last few days, you can see that they’ll help the team,” Yokuslu said. “In the cup game Sarmiento was brilliant, for me, and I think he’s going to help us. Maja in training has been brilliant as well.

“I’m looking forward to playing with him. We all want the best for the team and the club, but it is what it is.

“As a competitor and as a professional player you cannot have excuses, so you need to adapt to every situation you have and this is where we are.

“We have a long season ahead of us and we cannot stop and think about the excuses. We have to compete in every game. We have two new players, who will help us a lot I believe.”

Yokuslu added his determination for Albion to build on the progress the club made under Corberan last season. The Baggies are still trying to balance the books via player sales this month.

“We are trying to build something. What we built last year will help us,” he added.

“Still, we need to improve on some topics, but the gaffer is helping us a lot and we have a group of players who are helping each other on the pitch and out of it.

“It’s going to be long, but we just need to focus on one game at a time.

“Last year was a heartbreaking story. We did very well to get to the last point with a chance. Hopefully we’ll guarantee our place earlier, this season.”