Interviews

Carlos Corberán | Togetherness is crucial for run-in

Carlos Corberán.

Carlos Corberán says the support provided by Baggies fans will be crucial in helping his team earn a result against Stoke City this weekend, insisting they will give their "best" to reward those who are travelling up to the Bet365 Stadium.

Albion head to the Potteries on Saturday (ko 3pm) looking to bounce back from a disappointing Easter weekend, and will be roared on by another sold-out away end.

And the boss believes "togetherness" will help re-ignite the Baggies as they prepare to face their final six fixtures of the season.

He said: "The fact that the fans are giving us their support means a lot for us.

“We don’t want to lose this support. We know our fans understand the difficulty of the competition and the difficulty of the moment, but they are giving us a lot of support and we need to give the right answer to them.

“And the right answer to them is to give our best on the football pitch. That’s what our fans want to see.

“They will be enjoying with us in the good moments of the game and they will suffer with us in the tough moments of the game, and this is the togetherness that we have created.

“This is the same togetherness that helped move us forward from a very complicated situation when we started to work together here, to the situation we’re in right now.

“This is one of our strengths that we know we cannot lose, never. They give us the energy when it’s needed and they give us the support when the support is necessary."

Albion travel to Stoke knowing a victory could put them within touching distance of the top six again.

Corberán has urged his players to "take responsibility" and put their recent run of results behind them, starting against the Potters.

"Taking responsibility is the only way you can change these things," he added.

"We want to take responsibility for the situation. It’s not like we’re in a perfect situation or that we’re achieving everything we want to achieve from the games.

"The Championship is showing that it’s very difficult to win football games.

"If you analyse the performance in the results of teams in the first position you could be watching anything to the third position, but from them to the position of 13th, only one team has been able to win more than one game in the last five.

"All the other teams, we’re talking about nine teams, couldn’t win more than one of their last five games. It means that the Championship is a very challenging competition and we know that it demands a lot of effort.

"In our situation, the first thing that we need to do is adapt to the situation, adapt to the scenario and recover the levels that allow us to be a more competitive team.

"This is exactly what we want to show to our fans and want to achieve."

Meanwhile, the Head Coach confirmed that he will need to call on younger members of his squad this weekend as the team continues to battle injuries.

"From the previous game we’re not going to have any more players available, we couldn’t add any players," said Carlos.

"Taylor Gardner-Hickman isn’t going to be in the team because he couldn’t complete the week of training.

"We are going to add players from the Under-21 team to complete the squad and see what resources we have (available) to put on the pitch, and give value to compete at the level that the game tomorrow demands."

  • Corberan