West Brom head coach Carlos Corberan has called on his players to play 90 minutes and be more clinical after the 0-0 draw against Millwall.
The Baggies dominated after the break and hit the woodwork twice within 10 minutes in what Corberan described as a “perfect” second half after Alex Palmer saved Zian Flemming’s penalty in the 27th minute.
But Corberan regrets what could have been after that stalemate became a third draw in a week and extended their winless run to four matches.
“If you analyze during the week, we couldn’t maintain our second half form in the first half,” Corberan said.
“And in the Championship, playing brilliantly for 45 or 50 minutes tells us that it’s not enough.
“That said, even if we play a complete game (at this level), it might not be enough because in football what makes the difference is patience in front of goal .
“The more options you create, the more opportunities and possibilities you have to score.
“Look at the second-half stats: we had 73% possession, expected goals ratio was 1.
86 and their expected goals were zero.
“We had a perfect second half without getting three points.
In the first half we didn’t play well enough.
Brandon Thomas-Asante missed two chances – including one that hit the crossbar – but Corberan defended the striker, who has not scored a goal in four matches.
“He’s doing an incredible job – he played 90 minutes on Wednesday night and 90 minutes here,” he said.
“It’s not easy to find a player who does what he does.
“We must not forget that a year, two months ago, he was playing in Ligue Two
“He continues to develop, but every time he takes the field he shows a lot of value for the team.
The penalty was awarded after Ryan Longman’s corner was met by Kyle Bartley but Palmer saved his teammate’s blushes.
After the break, West Brom dominated.
Matt Phillips’ shot was blocked after Bartosz Bialkowski blocked Thomas-Asante’s shot.
Alex Mowatt’s curling free-kick then rattled the underside of the crossbar, before Thomas-Asante’s header went wide.
Millwall manager Gary Rowett praised his team’s fighting spirit.
“Sometimes in the league you have to work hard to get a point and keep a clean sheet and I think we did that brilliantly,” he said.
Rowett admitted his team struggled to start the second half after the missed kick.
“I don’t think that necessarily caused us a problem in the first half, but I definitely felt like in the second half we struggled a little bit,” he said.
“They changed the formation – they kept Jeremy Sarmiento high on the left and Matt Phillips high on the right and that pinned our back five.
“So we decided to change our formation to four at the back because there was no point
“It allowed us to gain a little bit of stability but it didn’t necessarily allow us to go out.
“I just felt our use of the ball and courage in the second half wasn’t enough for us to continue attacking.”