'One of the strongest' - West Brom boss delivers glowing verdict on Burnley

West Brom boss Carlos Corberan believes that Burnley have one of the ‘strongest’ squads in the league but has stressed the unpredictable nature of the Championship.

The Baggies host the Clarets under the floodlights on Thursday night with the match taking centre stage in Sky Sports’ EFL coverage. All the other teams will have played but with Sky Sports competing with TNT Sports’ Europa League and Conference League coverage, the decision was made to air a Championship match.

West Brom come in to the game having drawn 1-1 with Luton Town on Friday night. Josh Maja opened the scoring but WBA couldn’t hold on, and they had to settle for a point. It’s now seven games without a win, and five straight draws.

Burnley suffered a 1-0 defeat to Millwall on Sunday, and that just highlights how on any given day, anyone can be beaten. Scott Parker’s men find themselves five points off of the automatic promotion places, and only two points ahead of WBA.

A summer in which the Burnley squad was reshuffled with several high profile sales, but also the arrivals of the likes of Hannibal Mejbri, and Joe Worrall still has Burnley as one of the most equipped squads to go back. Ahead of the match, Carlos Corberan spoke positively of the opposition.

Speaking to the official club website, he said: “Burnley have one of the strongest squads in the Championship, but this league is very equal and it’s difficult to predict results.

"They don’t concede many goals, but they do it by not doing too much defending. They are built to have the ball, play from the back, put the ball in the attacking half and be dominant.

"They lost their last game at Millwall and I’ve watched other games of theirs recently where they didn’t achieve the result that their performance deserved, but like I say, every game demands a lot in this league.”

West Brom don't have the best record against Burnley and are winless in their last five league games against them. Their last victory against the Clarets came in August 2017 when Hal Robson-Kanu scored the winner.

Ahead of the game, Corberan stated: “If you don’t deliver your best, you are going to put the result at risk. We need to make sure we’re at our best on Thursday.

"In my mind, I am focused on the things that we can control which will help us win the games that we play in. There are always things that you cannot control that will affect the result as well, though. You just have to try and control as much of a game as you can.

"As a coach, I am taking responsibility for the way to try and create chances. We know we haven’t scored as many goals as we would have liked to. We have players who haven’t scored goals yet and compared to last season, they were finding more goals than right now.

"We need to take steps as a team to create more options and more possibilities to score goals, but we need to use our individuals to create chances too."