West Brom told to fix "issue" that occurred after Carlos Corberan's exit | OneFootball

West Brom will likely hold some regrets that they’re out of play-off contention this year

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

West Brom spent much of this season in the play-off places, but slipped at precisely the wrong moment.

Things started well under Carlos Corberan, but the former boss left midway through the season to pursue an opportunity with Valencia.

Tony Mowbray came in as his permanent replacement, for his second spell at the helm with the Baggies, but couldn’t secure a top-six finish.

Asked what one issue needs fixing at the Hawthorns ahead of next season, our West Brom Fan Pundit, Callum, identified the mentality of the players shown in that changeover.

West Brom urged to find mentally stronger core

Speaking to Football League World, Callum said: “I think one issue that needs to be addressed this summer is we need to bring in players with a strong mentality, after the way that Albion’s season has been decimated in the second half of the season, when there's a perfectly good opportunity to make our way into the play-offs.

“At one point, we lost five games in six, and I think there was a few players who've been here for a while and maybe they've got too comfortable, and they enjoyed the lesser restraints.

“From being managed by Carlos Corberan, where he was very instructive and clear with players, what he wanted from them, he had them really well drilled.

“To go from that to Tony Mowbray, where it appeared that he was a lot more carefree and some players took advantage of that, you could probably say.

“I think Albion need a manager who's going to have the players in place and is going to make them all very much aware of what they're expected of, and that it's going to be his way or no way.”

Questions must be asked about West Brom drop-off

Callum is right to raise the poor end to the season suffered by the Baggies.

While it’s difficult to pin precisely what went wrong, and it would be unfair to single out players, as they cannot be expected to turn a club’s fortune on their own, there must certainly have been something that collectively went wrong under Mowbray to lead to such a disappointing finish.

Corberan had the side just one place below the play-offs when he left for his new job, with plenty of games left to play to climb back into those positions.

And they did so under Mowbray, sitting in sixth or above until the end of March, when that fateful run of losses started.

Given that climb back into the play-offs, held for a number of weeks, it’s also difficult to lay blame solely at Mowbray’s door.

As Callum suggests, it may simply be something slightly lacking in the mentality of the squad, maybe a slight lack of belief, which a few strong minds in the dressing room could have rallied to put up a better fight for their shot at promotion.

It’s tempting to base pre-season recruitment on stats and playing profiles but, as Callum identifies, West Brom may do well to find some strong characters to add to their squad this summer.