Carlos Corberán says he doesn’t expect Middlesbrough’s style of play to be any different in 2023/24 despite losing a number of last season’s star players.
Saturday’s guests have seen youngsters Ryan Giles, Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramsey, as well as the division’s top scorer last term, Chuba Akpom, all depart the Riverside Stadium over the summer - men who played a key role in helping drive the club up from the relegation zone into the play-offs.
Michael Carrick has added a host of new faces to his squad for the new campaign in the hope they can replicate the success of their predecessors, most notably attackers Emmanuel Latte Lath, Morgan Rogers and Sam Silvera, defenders Lukas Engel and Rav van den Berg and goalkeeper Seny Dieng.
But despite the visitors having a new-look XI, Corberán is expecting Boro to still be one of the Sky Bet Championship’s most dangerous teams this year and says this weekend’s clash will be a “very competitive” one.
The boss said: “Middlesbrough have a very good coach who showed what level he is working at last season.
“It’s going to be a very competitive game between two teams who have very competitive teams, that’s for sure.
“Both teams have the full desire to win the football game, but as always, we are going to be focused on ourselves and we want a repeat of the result we got against Swansea in our last game at The Hawthorns.
“Middlesbrough are going to be a dangerous team in the Championship this season, just as they were last year under Michael Carrick.
“It’s true that they have lost some of the players they had last season. The new players have arrived and they’ve got to do the job the players who have left did. Some of them played against Huddersfield last weekend and now they’ve had a full week of training for our game, so they’ll be ready.
“We are going to see a new Middlesbrough team, but with the same style of play as what we saw last season.
“It’s a very challenging and a very important game.”
Corberán has also been speaking about his hopes for the final week of the summer transfer window.
The Spaniard insists the aim is to “strengthen the squad” and says the club must be prepared to react to the market and different scenarios.
“We are ready for everything that might happen.
“We can still go to the market to strengthen the squad. We need to be ready to solve any type of circumstance that may change our plans.
“In the last week of the market, anything can happen. We need to be ready to strengthen the squad and finish the market in a positive way.
“It’s been a different window for West Bromwich Albion compared to previous seasons. Normally this club goes to the market, but we shared our plans with the supporters and everyone and we told them that this window would be a different one and a challenging one.
“However, we need to give our best to tackle the challenges we have.
“Unfortunately, sometimes, I do not know what can happen. I say unfortunately because I would like to control what happens, but there are certain things that I cannot control.
“What I know is that we are going to need one player as a minimum to strengthen our squad, or two players. This is, for me, how we will cover all of the needs that we have.
“We need to improve in one or two positions.
“We need to see what happens in the market and react in a positive way in order to have as much of a competitive squad as possible.
“We know what we need as a club and we need to try and achieve what we want.
“The target is always, and has always been, to strengthen our squad.”
