Carlos Corberan confirms West Brom’s minutes for Alex Mowatt and Jeremy Sarmiento

Carlos Corberan has confirmed that midfielder Alex Mowatt and Jeremy Sarmiento will start at least one of the two matches West Brom will play this coming week. Albion head to Watford on Wednesday evening before they welcome Millwall to The Hawthorns on Saturday, and Corberan is plotting changes to his starting XI.

Both Sarmiento and Mowatt impressed at the weekend from the bench in their respective cameo spells at Bristol City, but neither have managed to break into the starting XI at any stage in the early stages of Albion’s Championship campaign. With Okay Yokuslu and Jed Wallace, both key players in the dressing room and on the pitch, struggling for their best form, there have been calls for Corberan to change things up from the off.

The Spaniard is certainly considering freshening up his starting XI, what with Albion play three matches in the space of eight days, and he has revealed that both players are in line to start either – or both – of this week’s fixtures.

“Mowatt is ready,” Corberan confirmed. “He could play Wednesday or the next game, but I think probably he will play one of the next two games in the first XI. He’s a player who is very useful. He is a player who brings something different, from all the players that we have.

“He is a player who, when you play with three at the back, he has more options to start in the team. It depends on what you want – if you want the ball, he is perfect for that. To make a high press, he is a player who is in transition. He’s more intelligent than quick. We are working to develop his physical resources too, but his mind and his foot are top.

“If Sarmiento doesn’t start in Watford he will start in Millwall. He can start in Watford too. Now arrives the moment where he is going to be a starting player in one of the next games, because the team needs this. When you are playing many games in a row, you are going to need the freshness, especially when you don’t have a lot of days between games.”

Grady Diangana is another player who has had limited time to make an impact as a substitute lately, having made his long-awaited comeback against Huddersfield. The winger was out for seven months, all told, having required surgery on his foot injury sustained against Middlesbrough in February. Diangana, too, is in line for increased exposure in the coming weeks.

“It’s like Sarmiento,” Corberan explained. “He has had four months with an injury, but that doesn’t mean he has had four months without activity. The only thing he was missing was the football, so when the player is injury, sometimes physically, it’s different if the player has been on holidays than if he has been working.

“When the player has a break, the player doesn’t work so you need to start the work. When the player is injured, he cannot make specific football work. I don’t see, physically, Diangana is bad and especially with Maja out he will have more minutes without any type of doubt.”