Carlos Corberán says he has enjoyed his first month as Head Coach at The Hawthorns - and can’t wait to get going again after the international break.
The Baggies boss was appointed Albion manager at the end of October and has overseen three wins from his four matches in charge.
But there is a drive to build on the encouraging start to his tenure by using this extended period without a competitive match to work alongside his squad.
And during a chat with WBA TV Carlos covered a range of topics, including his experience so far, what he’ll be working on during the World Cup pause and how much he’s looking forward to a return to action.
“It has been fantastic to spend time here, at this amazing club, and I am enjoying every single day,” said Corberán.
“For me, it was a great opportunity to come here and I have tried to give my best. When you are at a big club, with big supporters, a big stadium and big players, everything is positive.
“This break is a great opportunity because when you don’t do a pre-season with the squad, it is a perfect moment to work with the players.
“To now have this period of time is fantastic because we can use it in the same way as a pre-season. It’s even better because you don’t have the same physical demands that pre-season has where the players have a longer period of break beforehand. The players are not going to lose the physical level.
“So, you can be working more on tactical points that you think are going to be important for the team, in attack and in defence. To have this opportunity to be working with the players, three weeks in a row without a game, is positive.
“Especially because we know after this international break that we are going to have a period of time with many games. The time that we are going to have to train then will be less.
“The first part of the break was about recovery, and now we are working tactically as a group to create a bit of continuation.
"We have time to better develop the line of thought, to keep insisting the messages we have given from the beginning, but to use more time training these concepts and putting these concepts on the pitch.
“Not only by videos and by conversations with the players, but to have the opportunity to do everything we were talking about, we can now move on to the pitch and to training.”
On the trip to Spain, Carlos added: “First of all, we would have been here for more than three weeks – so to have the opportunity to move from here can be beneficial for the mind.
“The fact that we will travel creates some togetherness, because they are going to travel together, without their families – just as a group of players.
“You can increase the togetherness between us, not only between the players – but also between the players and the staff. We are going to spend time together and that can be positive.
“All the first team players are going to travel, including some of the Academy players who are interesting to us – to help them get the ideas of the first team and be integrated with the squad.
“Now is a fantastic period of time to increase the behaviours, to feed better our ideas, and to move that into the game situation.
“The first game back is going to be, of course, with Sunderland. We are trying to improve the team and our consistency of ideas with the squad, not only for that game but for the rest of the season.”
You can watch the full interview above via WBA TV.
