Carlos Corberan reveals the summer transfer who must learn after West Brom discovery
Carlos Corberan was in attendance as West Bromwich Albion's under 21 dismantled their Stoke City counterparts in a Premier League 2 game at the club's training ground at the beginning of the recent international break, keeping a particularly close eye on a trio of senior players who were handed minutes in order to better ready themselves for the Championship season which is still in its infancy.
Corberan took Albion to Portsmouth on Sunday, overseeing a convincing 3-0 win to send the club top of the league for the first time in just shy of two years when a 10-match unbeaten run under Valerien Ismael - a club record - carried them to the summit. Callum Styles, Devante Cole and Paddy McNair didn't even make the bench, such is the depth in Albion's squad currently.
Styles and Cole, both arrivals in the summer from Barnsley, are hardened to the ways of the EFL, but were handed game time against Stoke's kids alongside foreign import Gianluca Frabotta. Cole scored a couple of goals, one in particular a well executed finish, while Italian left-back Frabotta, a summer addition from Juventus, scored a free-kick.
For Frabotta, who has spent his entire career in his native Italy, the adaptation process is ongoing; he has been introduced from the bench in a number of league games so far, with his only start coming in the EFL Cup defeat at Fleetwood Town. While Torbjorn Heggem has made the left-back spot his own, Frabotta is still getting to grips with the demands of English football.
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"Physically, there was a clear benefit for the players who played. Physically, for sure," Corberan said. "As well, for a player like Frabotta who has played in Italy, it's different than to play in England. I remember in my first year in Leeds United, I was coaching the under 21s and the club signed two or three Spanish players.
"They were surprised because there were situations that, in Spain, were immediately fouls. Here, there aren't those fouls. It's like a different game. There's more contact, and we like the football here when it's not interrupted. The football doesn't stop and it's what makes football here in England special and different. There's an adaptation you need to do.
"Frabotta needed to understand that there is a need to focus, to forget about the referee and focus and compete. There were actions that before he understood to be a foul, but here they're not so he must adapt to the conditions. This is a normal part of the process."
As for Styles and Cole, Corberan was pleased to be able to see the pair in a match environment as, by his own admission, you can only learn so much - particularly when assessing new players - from training sessions.
"Regarding physically and adaptation, Styles didn't need because he has played many years in this country," Corberan added. "For me, it was important for Cole because he didn't play as a striker since he came to the club - in the cup game he was playing more as a winger and we played with Mo Faal as a striker that day.
"It was positive that I had the possibility to watch them in a more real situation than in training. In training you manipulate it to make the players work on the ideas you want, but in the end, in the game you can evaluate better the possibilities of the players."