Carlos Corberán insists Albion will be using recent back-to-back defeats against Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough as “motivation to grow”.
The Baggies sat top of the Sky Bet Championship table after six matches having won five and drawn one, however, they’ve since suffered consecutive setbacks in the second tier and will be determined to earn a positive result when Millwall come to town on Saturday afternoon (ko 3pm).
The boss a firm believer without “suffering” there is no “joy” in football and mentioned how there is a “message” in every single match which offers teams the opportunity to improve going forward, regardless of whether they’ve claimed a victory or have been beaten.
Carlos says Albion will never accept defeats and wants to see his side produce a response when they face the Lions at The Hawthorns this weekend.
The Spaniard said: “We have to manage this situation. In a bad week in the Championship, you can have three defeats in-a-row. Bad results can happen.
“Our supporters know how much we all want to win games. We want to win every single game but this is impossible. I know what our challenge is and what our level is. We are ready to face this challenge and this competition.
“We have thousands of challenges to face together. Football is like life. You have to face difficult challenges. We like this, though. We like to have the challenge of winning games and the challenge of making our fans happy.
“Fans and players enjoy winning games because they know winning is difficult to achieve. If in football winning was easy to achieve, nobody would celebrate victories or goals. Nobody would follow games because they’d know for sure that their team will win.
“Without suffering in football, there is no joy. They go together. That’s why I am so ready to face the Championship challenges. You’re going to have good weeks and some negative weeks, but this is football. The key is how you face these moments and we need to face them giving our best.
“Every game and every defeat has a message for us, detailing things we did well and things we need to improve. We need to get these messages from every game to be able to move on and prepare for the next one.
“We never just want to accept defeats. We don’t like losing games. It affects our mood and stops us celebrating with our fans.
“The key is how you use the defeat. If the defeat frustrates you and makes you worse and weak, you will accumulate more defeats. If the defeat motivates you to grow, you will have less defeats during the season.
“The job this week has been to improve, prepare for the next game and analyse the previous defeats to know how we can be better. You have to properly analyse the defeats to help the players understand why the result happened and how they can avoid certain things happening again.
“Without belief, you cannot win. Without self-demands, you cannot win. These two aspects are key.
“Sometimes after positive results, it’s more difficult to see the things that we didn’t do well. Sometimes after a negative result, it’s more challenging to see the things we did well. Every defeat and every game is a possibility to learn and improve.”
Visitors Millwall were defeated 1-0 at Cardiff City in midweek and head to the West Midlands with a record of two wins, two draws and four losses from their opening eight fixtures.
Corberán described the encounter as a “proper” Championship test.
“They haven’t won away yet, but we hadn’t lost at home before Tuesday night, so we cannot look at statistics. We have to look at each game as a completely new and individual test.
“Last season, it was very difficult for us against Millwall. We drew both games.
“This season, they are very aggressive in the press and quick in transitions.
“I am never going to speak about a game being easy for us in this division. There will never be an easy game for us in this division, and, for me, this is why the Championship is so exciting.
“Mentally, we are more prepared for this challenge. What the last week has shown us is the reality of the Championship, where any team can beat any team.
“This is a proper Championship test. Millwall have their own identity. They are strong at set-pieces and they are aggressive in defence.”
