Football League World
·15 November 2024
Football League World
·15 November 2024
Corberan has earned a strong reputation during his time at The Hawthorns
This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...
Carlos Corberan celebrated 100 games in charge of West Bromwich Albion last Sunday with a 2-1 victory away at Hull City.
The Spaniard, and previous Huddersfield Town head coach, has earned a reputation as being one of the strongest tacticians in the Championship, with a transformation of Albion's fortunes throughout his two-year spell there for all to see.
Of course, whilst Marcelo Bielsa's former assistant at Leeds United has made the West Midlands side one of the stronger forces in the second tier, his tenure has been far from scot-free.
The narrow success in East Yorkshire saw the Baggies end an eight-game winless streak, which also saw them fire five blanks in the process, with frustration starting to ring around The Hawthorns.
With that being said, Football League World asked our West Brom fan pundit, Callum Burgess, whether he believes the fanbase as a whole, are content with Corberan's methods.
Whilst being a clear advocate of Corberan's tactics which include a patient build-up approach, Burgess understands that this doesn't please every single fan in B71, despite the overall success which has been enjoyed across his tenure thus far.
"This is a topic that divides a lot of supporters when Albion have played at home recently," he began. "For example, you get a lot of people who will moan about how long it takes us to build up from the back."
"You think of these as the stereotypical football supporters who have the view of 'just get it up top as fast as you can'," our fan pundit added.
"Whilst Carlos Corberan's patient build-up style is not everyone's cup of tea, I'm a fan of it," Burgess continued. "He's shown that he can get results with it, with us finishing in the play-offs last season as well as scoring some decent goals this season."
"You think of Portsmouth away, where Albion were able to get Fellows in behind and Maja was able to tap home from a cutback. If Albion can score more goals like that, it would be absolutely ace."
"I do understand the patient style that Carlos opts to use at times," he added.
"Whilst some supporters are frustrated with it, I think back to when we had Valerien Ismael in charge, and his style of play was very direct and everyone hated it and were very critical."
"The only time the supporters weren't moaning about the style of play was when Steve Bruce was manager, and a style of play wasn't evident," Burgess stated.
"As always, the manager can't win all the supporters over, and I think with our playing style, Carlos is getting the best out of our squad."
He concluded : "Whilst some supporters can get frustrated, I'm still a fan of what he's producing."
Whilst there has been an upsurge in managers who like to adopt a slow build-up and possession-based approach in the modern game, it has been proven with his record that Corberan's individual tactics have largely benefitted the squads at his disposal since taking charge in October 2022.
This saw him emerge victorious in 10 of his first 13 encounters, which saw Albion go from the relegation zone to within a whisker of the play-off places, before a points total of 75 saw the Baggies cement their position in the top six on the final day of last season, with 49 of those points won on home turf.
Across 91 regular Championship outings in B71, Corberan has accrued a total of 152 points in that timeframe, winning 43 of those encounters and averaging 1.67 points per game.
In October, there was talk that the 41-year-old could replace the under-fire Russell Martin at Southampton, before those links were quashed by the Albion boss, who stated : "I can only tell you that making a career in this club will be one thing that would make me happy - to extend my career in this club."
Those words would have seen 'Don Carlos' - as he is aptly named by supporters - become even more endeared, and they will hope that his meticulous style will see their side return to the Premier League sooner rather than later.