Carlos Corberán believes his side didn’t show a true reflection of the performance levels they’re capable of reaching on Saturday lunchtime against Sunderland.
The Baggies suffered a 2-1 defeat to the Black Cats at the Stadium of Light, with Brandon Thomas-Asante’s late header proving to be nothing more than consolation following Dan Ballard’s header and Dan Neil’s composed finish.
Corberán accepts his side could’ve used their moments better and admitted Sunderland’s wingers caused his players a few problems.
Carlos said: “I think, in general, we didn’t show a true performance.
“I think we started the first-half well and we found a way to break the press, but after that, the continuity and the last action of the move wasn’t executed well enough.
“We could and should have used the moments when we were dominating better.
“If you lose the ball against Sunderland in a bad position you are going to suffer in the transition because they have a lot of good players who can go one-v-one and they create a lot of problems.
“Their wingers created more problems today for our full-backs than our wingers created for their full-backs. Very slowly they were taking more and more control of the game.
“The produced a level of energy which made it very difficult for us.”
Albion forward Josh Maja was on the receiving end of a very heavy challenge from Northern Ireland international Ballard in the first-half.
The defender lunged at Maja and caught him late, a tackle which ended the striker’s afternoon before the half-time whistle, yet was only cautioned.
Ballard went on to score the opening goal of the day, but Corberán was quick to state the need for his side to defend the set-piece better and not become frustrated by decisions out of their control.
The boss added: “It’s difficult in terms of injuries because the advice from the medical staff today was not to start with Brandon Thomas-Asante and to only let him play for the last 30 minutes.
“Josh Maja started and we wanted him to have a lot of time on the pitch. He received a massive foul, which is what happened last time against Bristol City. He has injured the same ankle.
“In life, you are going to face a lot of difficulty. You have to try and never get frustrated and you have to have an extra strong mentality to face these circumstances.
“The fact that Josh Maja has suffered an injury from the foul is painful, for him and for us in terms of the situation we are in with the strikers.
“The referee decided the player who made the foul should stay on the pitch and carry on with the game. From that moment we need to stay focused and defend the set-piece better which led to their opening goal. We can only control the things that we can control.”
