Carlos Corberán believes his group are showing an “incredible mentality” at this moment in time but insists there’s still plenty of room to “grow”.
The Baggies sit fifth in the Sky Bet Championship ahead of the latest round of matches having scooped up seven points and three clean sheets from their last three fixtures, despite missing several key first-team players through injury.
Albion secured an impressive 2-0 win at Coventry City on Monday night thanks to strikes from Grady Diangana and Brandon Thomas-Asante, with Hull City next up at The Hawthorns this Saturday afternoon (ko 3pm).
Carlos claimed the squad have been competing in the "necessary" way in recent encounters, but also mentioned how Albion are still trying to be a more dominant team in attack and are seeking ways to find the correct balance between being strong going forward as well as at the back.
He said: “My players are showing an incredible mentality at the moment. They are showing so much resilience despite the challenges we are facing. It’s a necessary action right now.
“You know that if you don’t put your best on the pitch, it’s going to be very difficult to beat the opponents. It’s important to get the best from the players, but, at the same time, help the players and challenge them to compete at their best level.
“The group is still growing. This is football. You have to grow and you have to adapt to the needs of every single game you play.
“It’s true that we are showing some adaptability. Sometimes we are playing with a line of four and sometimes we are playing with a line of five at the back. It all just depends on the opponents.
“We want to achieve some consistency, little-by-little, in the way that we are defending. The fact we are defending better as a group cannot negatively impact the way we want to attack.
“We still need to find good options to attack and be more dominant in games. At the same time, we want to grow in attack in a way which doesn’t have negative consequences on the positive work we are doing in defence.
“We are still trying to find the best balance to be a very strong team in attack and a very strong team in defence.
“For example, the other night against Coventry City, we had less than 40 per cent of the ball. That shows just how much more improving we can do, despite coming away with a 2-0 win.
“Competing in each game with the right mentality is the key and that’s why we spend an awful lot of time analysing each game with the players.
“We review the things we are doing well and the things we believe we can improve on from both the tactical and mental aspects.”
Hull City head for The Hawthorns having collected just as many points as the Baggies so far this season, with only goal difference keeping them outside the top six ahead of the weekend.
The Tigers have produced some entertaining attacking displays in their opening 14 matches and Corberán is adamant "excellent defensive behaviours" will be required to earn a positive result against Liam Rosenior’s men in B71.
“It’s going to be a very, very big test. We know that they are one team who are doing very good things this season, especially in attack.
“They are very comfortable in possession of the ball and they are taking risks in positive areas of the pitch.
“They have taken the ideas of their coach and made themselves into one of the best attacking teams in the division.
“It’s going to be a big challenge for us in terms of trying to move the game in the way that we want to, making them defend and not letting them attack as much as they’d want to.
“It’s going to be a game which is going to demand excellent defensive behaviours from us if we’re going to achieve the result we want to achieve.”
