West Brom boss Carlos Corberan feels squad depth is vital with added minutes

The Baggies have already been involved in Championship fixtures this season with increased additional time added on by officials at both half-time and full-time, with English football following IFAB laws.

Officials aim to crack down on time-wasting and are handing out tougher sanctions this season. Corberan was sent off for two yellow cards on the opening day against Blackburn, for which he was hit with a fine for misconduct but escaped a touchline ban.

“The extra time changes the football, yes,” Corberan said of the issue. “Because now you play more minutes in the legs, three games in one week with more minutes – so what does it mean? That your squad needs to be bigger and you need to use your five subs.

“Sometimes five subs is a challenge because you have three moments to do it plus half-time. Sometimes you watch one problem but you don’t know the problem that will happen one minute later. Sometimes you cannot use the five subs you want, I am not going to change a player that is playing well just to change, I don’t need to decrease the level in the pitch, I need to increase the level.

“That’s why in this context one squad with the best level of competition is very useful. Then you are watching one playing well but the one that is there (as a sub) has the same level, so you can say let’s not be affected by the fatigue that can appear in five minutes.”

Corberan is still trying to add to his Baggies squad and, with some positions dependent on outgoings, would ideally like to add another centre-half, central midfielder, wide player and striker to the group.

The head coach admits he does not envy referees when it comes to officiating.

His two yellow cards at Ewood Park were for leaving the technical area to throw the ball to Darnell Furlong – a move punishable in the new rule – and throwing a bottle to the floor in frustration.

Spaniard Corberan joked in retrieving the ball quickly for his side he was helping the new ‘multi-ball’ system, in place to minimise the ball out of play.

He added: “Now it is not changing what is happening on the pitch, because normally the referee will whistle for one free-kick and players will recover, or the ball will go out and you can recover.

“So the game is exactly the same, but now they are timing it to try to play more of a real football game, every mission should be for quick re-starts.

“What is the sense of multi-ball if the ball is not going quick? And at the end I need to move to make a quick ball, if the ball goes out the rule is to get a quick ball in – if I need to move to help the ball in I am helping the rule and paying to help the rule happen! It’s true, eh?

“After the game I met with the referees, something new too, to talk after them after 30 minutes, this is positive because I wanted to say to them any of the two incidents, when I threw the bottle down was not about any decision they were making, it was about frustrating we missed one chance, and other mistakes we do

“Referees are human, in the Premier League there is VAR to help reduce mistakes, imagine now VAR in the Championship? The work they do is very difficult. I was in the meeting and sometimes the decision they need to make in one second is not normal. There is more pressure on them every time. In one action they need to decide five things to affect to whistle or not whistle, a yellow or not yellow, things that are difficult. I would like to help them simplify things more with more possibilities.

“Every referee does not want to help one team or not, they want to make the right decisions, that’s all. Some have personality to maker the same decisions away as at home, like players and me, sometimes you can have more or less personality, we are humans.”