Yahoo News Carlos Corberan sets West Brom players a non-negotiable points target
Carlos Corberan and West Bromwich Albion may only need a couple of points more to secure their place in the Championship play-offs - but the Spaniard has outlined a clear target for his players which involves chasing the full haul of nine points which remain on offer to his side. Albion travel to Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday in the coming weeks before they welcome Preston North End on the final day of the season.
Losing 1-0 to Sunderland on Saturday, which ended a ten-match unbeaten run, did dent their hopes of cementing fifth place and did mean that they missed a clear opportunity to lock themselves in for a play-off campaign, because of the defeat suffered by Coventry City at Birmingham City on the same day.
It means that they require at least one more notable result in the three matches left to play of the regular season, and in all three they will face opponents who have something to fight for at either end of the league table. Still, Albion - who at this moment sit on 72 points - will tackle the final cluster of fixtures on Corberan's watch with the intention of taking maximum points.
"Maybe we need six points," Corberan said. "We will need to try and go for three points in every game. Hopefully we will get nine points. Our target has to be nine points now. Let's see if we achieve that. We need to get more points. It is simple because you can talk about mathematics when everyone has played the same number of games.
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"When it gets to week 46 then it will show which team has competed better against everyone twice. Leicester are in the fight to promote, Southampton, Leeds, Ipswich the same and the ones fighting for the play-offs exactly the same. We know that we are in the race for the play-offs and I'm very pleased to see my club fighting in this race.
"Special things in life are never easy. There are 24 teams teams fighting for promotion and only three achieve. In the Championship many teams pay millions for this. So if at the last game we are fighting still I will be pleased - especially if we achieve."
Albion head to Leicester who might've expected to have been promoted by now; they were so far clear of the chasing pack at the very top of the Championship only a couple of months ago, but what has unfolded since has been quite remarkable - while Leeds and Ipswich have been relentless in their chasing down of the Foxes, Enzo Maresca's side have wilted under the increasing pressure being applied.
Now, with four matches left of their campaign, they're by no means guaranteed even an automatic promotion place because of the competitiveness at the top of the division - throw in the fact that they've lost their last two on the road, as well. Albion, meanwhile, have been fifth since November - but that doesn't mean Corberan, by comparison, has depended on that status quo remaining the same.
"I haven't thought of us being fifth," Corberan continued. "Being fifth now doesn't mean we will be fifth after week 46. For me, the players can have all the same thoughts. The key is how to arrive in week 46. We are in the race for the play-offs to achieve this.
"Leicester is a top team, I watched them against Plymouth and you can't understand why they didn't win. In the last few games they have had massive resilience but sometimes that is not enough. We will need to make our best game to win. They are one of the best teams in the competition. If they win the game they have in hand they will be the best team in the competition. So we need to be at our best."
