‘Everybody knows’ - Tony Mowbray aims sly dig at former West Brom boss Carlos Corberan

Tony Mowbray has insisted he will continue to manage West Bromwich Albion his way and aim to avoid settling back into old habits despite a poor recent run of form.

The Baggies slipped six points outside the Championship top six with an unacceptable 2-0 defeat away at Coventry City on Good Friday and never really looked like winning as Frank Lampard’s Sky Blues were dominant throughout.

Albion fans in a sold-out away end at the CBS Arena were understandably incandescent at the manner of the defeat as their side hardly laid a glove on the hosts. Just one shot on target - a tame header from Kyle Bartley in the first half - was managed, and there was a noticeable lack of urgency to try and get back into the game.

Mowbray admitted afterwards that West Brom didn’t perform well enough but he stands firm on his point that the Baggies are working towards bigger and better things. The head coach is determined not to set up in a low block and focus on counter-attacks; rather he’s determined to dominate matches and score goals that way.

In what appeared to be a sly dig at former Baggies boss Carlos Corberan as the Spaniard often instructed his team to sit deep and play on the transition, Mowbray emphasised his desire to approach games in a contrasting way.

“I’m trying to turn a team around that’s been pretty passive and sat in its two banks of four and waited, letting the opposition have the ball,” Mowbray explained during his post-Coventry press conference.

“When they (Albion under Corberan) would get it, they’d try and break fast. And that’s fine, that’s ok. But still, did they accrue enough points to have scored a number of goals we should’ve done?

“I don’t know if maybe this frustration that I feel today has been here a lot this season. It becomes a lot more heightened because the games are running out, but is it the same as after 10 games, after 12 games, after 20 games? I’m not sure because I wasn’t here, but sometimes it’s very difficult to turn a team that looks like this into a team you want to make it look like.”

Mowbray believes West Brom’s current crop can turn fortunes around

Despite his exasperation at the lack of goalscoring returns from his squad, Mowbray is fond of his current players and hopes they can be the ones to succeed at The Hawthorns.

“And yet, as I’ve just said to them, I like the group,” Mowbray continued. “They look like they care about this team, they care about the club.

“But again, I go back to it, you have to score goals to win football matches and it becomes irrelevant me talking about control when you don’t put the ball in the net.

“There are examples of Leicester winning a Premier League with 35 per cent possession, so possession is nobody’s king. (Nottingham) Forest are doing it that way this year.

“I just don’t want to play letting the other team having all the ball and then you score from a quick breakaway. I’d rather dominate the game, try to break them down, score some goals and win football matches.

“Everybody knows we’re the best team and deserve to win. And this team have shown me they’re more than capable of doing that, other than the last little bit of putting the ball in the net,” Mowbray concluded.