Yahoo News Pressure, Wembley and Southampton - every word from West Brom boss Carlos Corberan
Carlos Corberan welcomed the media to his West Bromwich Albion press conference at the club's training ground on Friday afternoon ahead of the Championship play-off semi-final first leg against Southampton at The Hawthorns on Sunday afternoon. Albion finished the season in fifth, a position they'd held for the majority of the season, and they have earned themselves a chance to achieve promotion to the Premier League through the play-offs. This is what Corberan had to say...
After all the build up, the wait is nearly over...
I'm very pleased because we're looking forward to playing these types of games. I wanted to put West Bromwich in the highest position and the highest positions give you the opportunity to fight for promotion. You can only look forward to live these types of moments.
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The clubs in the play-offs have been well set - there hasn't been a late run from a team this year
During the season, we have seen four teams that have been better than the rest. They've fought between them for promotion. The three teams who were relegated from the Premier League, like you'd expect before the season, as they have more resources, and then the one team who finished where nobody expected - that's why football is amazing - that was Ipswich.
The rest of the teams were fighting to achieve promotion with the play-off possibilities. We have been one of the teams, with other clubs who have made massive investments to achieve these positions. Now, based on the work this group has done, we have the opportunity to be involved in the play-offs. There are leagues within the league - Leicester, Ipswich who achieved, Leeds and Southampton who were in the race but couldn't achieve.
Then, there were us and Norwich who achieved and lots of teams - like Hull City, Coventry, Middlesbrough, Preston, they've fought a massive race. Then there was a league of teams fighting to not get relegated to League One. It's been an extraordinary Championship season with excitement in all parts of the league.
If you follow it until the end, the games we were playing for these targets, we have achieved it but now we have to face the play-offs, focus on the opponent, one team who have been better than us because they finished 12 points better. They have been in the race for promotion and it shows the level of their squad.
Are your two meetings with Southampton this season relevant before these games?
It depends. We have more opportunities to learn from these games. They can learn too, about the things they did which helped them beat us, we can learn about what we didn't do well enough. We will learn to avoid the negative behaviours to help us to compete in the best level. It doesn't make any difference. They finished with 12 points more, they have been better than us over 46 games. Let's see who is better over two games.
How much do you enjoy these games? There is so much on the line
You can only enjoy as a coach these types of games - the big ones. These are the games we always want to play. You want to make your club succeed and achieve things. You have more difficult ones, like fighting to avoid relegation - they're not nice games because you know the consequence of what can be if you don't win.
For me you can only be motivated to play in these types of games. If you play a semi-final - of the Champions League, Europa League, any big competition like the one we are going to play - you know you'll face an important opponent in front of you. They'll demand the very best from us.
How is the team feeling?
We are going to play a game which we've fought to play. In the last weeks we've fought to achieve this position and now we can fight to get to Wembley, that's the next target. To get to Wembley we know we are going to play at least 180 minutes against one of the best teams in the competitions - not just because I say, but because of what they've achieved.
We are in front of one big challenge but to achieve in life you have to beat challenges.
Do you consider it a bonus to be in the play-offs?
We have fought a lot and we have made a lot of effort to arrive in the play-off position. Direct promotion was impossible for us, now we have the opportunity, with the play-offs, to achieve the target of promotion. We need to make our best to arrive to Wembley.
That's our target right now. After you can say who is the favourite, where is the pressure, if it's a bonus or not, but we are going to have two games which give us the opportunity to get to Wembley, against a team who will make things very, very difficult and who want exactly the same.
Can you compare or take anything from your play-off campaign at Huddersfield?
It's impossible to find any relation between my time in Huddersfield and my time here now. It's impossible to find any relation between Luton as an opponent and Southampton as a team. We are not Huddersfield, we are West Bromwich, and what we try to use is our experience as a team, that's important.
During these 46 weeks, our experience needs to help us achieve what we want to achieve in these next games we are playing, and our experience playing with them needs to help us understand better the type of game we're going to play. My time in Huddersfield, there is no relation to the games we are going to play right now.
Do you think the pressure is on Southampton as favourites?
If you want to achieve something in football, pressure is a motivation. I am not seeing the pressure as negative. Sometimes it's what activates you and makes you give 100%. If you don't have this pressure you need to find something to activate you - from the want to arrive to Wembley, for the love from the fans, from your family, from the people, whatever reason. The pressure cannot be an aspect to decrease your level - it must be exactly the opposite.
Is there any fresh team news?
In the last period of the competition, we didn't lose players for more than one game. Everyone has been fit and we have had the possibility to add players coming back from long-term injuries. I have worked with 21 pitch (outfield) players, which is the maximum number of players we have right now.
Do you approach this week differently in any way?
No, I don't think so. It's been a demanding week and an excited week, which is what you expect. We have been doing exactly the same, what I do from the first day I coached this team. If I did something different, it would mean I should've done something differently before now. We have to give 100%, we need to analyse the opponent, need to prepare for the game, create drills based on the game situations we are going to have.
With the video analyst, we look to create behaviours for what we are going to face, what we are going to need, like always, but it's true we've had a week of preparation for this game, perhaps with one day more because it is on Sunday. It's been a positive week but we have been doing exactly the same as normal.
You have Bartley, Townsend, Phillips who have been in the play-offs with Albion before - do you lean on that experience?
Not a lot. When you play the big games, they build you as a player. They have been having these big games, but I have players for example - Johnston has been playing big games with Celtic and his national team. Semi Ajayi has played a final this year in the African Cup. Grady played in the semi-final. The more big games you're playing, the more used you are to playing in a demanding and big atmosphere.
What you have done before doesn't mean anything in the future. You have more experience, but what we want is that the ones use it in the best way and those who don't to just play it as they always do. This game isn't different - the different one is Wembley. We don't play a neutral game in a 46-game season.
Sometimes you play two legs in a cup competition, but the different game is Wembley. It's a final and that means you play in a neutral stadium - probably the most important stadium in the country. That has more emotional aspects that make the game different to the previous ones. This one is a home game followed by an away. It's a big game, too, but we've played some big games this year.
Can you learn from how the two meetings against Southampton?
Yes and no. If you divide the two games in four halves, probably I would say they were better than us in three. If you take the goal expected in these games, only away in the second half we achieved better numbers than them. In the other three halves, we saw that Southampton is one team who are very specific in the way they do things.
They're a team built to attack in a different way. They're a team who aren't easy to press, because they don't have a set shape. The shape is the starting point and then there is a lot of fluidity in positions and attacking behaviours. It is a difficult game to prepare for. They have solutions for the moments they'll have during the game.
Do you consider your red card against them influenced the result in any way?
I don't consider it. I would like to tell you yes, that I was the key because then on Sunday I just wouldn't touch the ball and we can win! Unfortunately I was sent off because I cannot play inside the lines. How much can we help? The impact of the coach is to prepare the team in the week, mentally. The impact of the coach is to prepare tactically, across the whole season to create an identity for the team.
The impact of the coach is the decision you make when you are watching the game. It's true that I was watching the game on the TV, not live, but when I analyse opponents I do so on TV. In the end it doesn't change a lot how I made the decisions. If we lost that game, it's because they were much better than us.
It's a challenge, because they're a good team, but like every single team in the world, like every human being, we all have strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes our weaknesses can be our strengths. We will try to use our strengths using their weaknesses and they will do the opposite. Let's see who can win the challenge.
