Carlos Corberán revealed he’s been really impressed by his players’ “desire to work” during the international break.
The Baggies return to Sky Bet Championship action on Saturday lunchtime, heading to Oxford United for a clash which kicks off at 12.30pm.
Albion made a storming start to the 2024/25 campaign, winning five and drawing one of their opening six matches.
Corberán’s side haven’t managed to win any of their last three though and were held to a goalless draw at home to Millwall in their most recent fixture.
The boss says he’s seen a positive reaction in training over the last fortnight and believes the group are motivated to get back on track this weekend.
Carlos said: “We’ve had players go away with their national teams during the international break and get some important minutes.
“Players like Mason Holgate and Paddy McNair, the minutes they’ve played for their nations, we see those minutes as excellent minutes because they’ve not had many with us so far.
“The players who weren’t involved with their national teams have been training here with us and we’ve seen a big desire to work and try and improve on the things we need to improve on.
“It’s true that you don’t know how the players can react, sometimes, when you do not achieve results that we would have loved to achieve.
“It can decrease a little bit of your motivation or it can affect you. One thing is what I want and the other is what I see.
“But I see the right answer after these days where they had the possibility to rest and they came back to the group. For me they have shown the right answer and we’re determined to get back to earning victories, like we did at the very start of the season.
“We know we haven’t achieved the results we wanted to achieve in the last three games and we want to put that right.”
Hosts Oxford United have made an eye-catching start to the term having not competed in the second tier of English football since 1998/99.
They’re unbeaten at home (W3, D1) and go into Saturday’s game sat on 12 points from their first nine matches.
Corberán knows his squad are in for a stern test at the Kassam Stadium.
“At home, Oxford haven’t suffered any defeats yet.
“In their last three games, they have drawn all three.
“In those three games, they’ve played two teams who were in the Premier League last year in Burnley and Luton and also played away at Portsmouth.
“That shows it’s going to be a really difficult test.
“They were promoted from League One last year and they’ve made a really positive start to the season. They’ll be full of confidence and will be pleased with their home record.”
