As Carlos Corberan broke the news of Jeremy Sarmiento’s quad injury at his post-match press conference on Tuesday evening, you almost had flashbacks to January when, also after a victory, the manager appeared downbeat following the injury to Matt Phillips in the FA Cup. The prognosis wasn’t good.
Even after this victory, the second in the space of four days his team had achieved and complementing both with more clean sheets, Corberan was visibly agitated when asked to address the subject of Sarmiento. It’s not that Sarmiento has suffered an injury, which can happen to any footballer in any environment – it’s that Sarmiento is the latest in an increasingly long list.
Aside from the other long-term absentees, the other obvious miss at the moment is Sarmiento’s fellow summer signing Josh Maja, whose ankle ligament injury was doubly bad and will keep him out until mid November at the earliest. It effectively means that Albion won’t, for the foreseeable future, feel the benefits of the work they conducted in the transfer window to strengthen the front-line within their means.
Corberan has Pipa to call on, although his compatriot was only handed a couple of minutes for his debut in the win over Preston North End and he has otherwise been limited to watching his new teammates from the bench, but in an attacking sense the group now is, for likely the rest of this month at least, going to be what it was last year – minus Tom Rogic and Marc Albrighton.
Albion, of course, didn’t have Grady Diangana and Phillips in the second half of last season and both have been important players in this group since their respective reintroductions back into the starting XI this season. Corberan has already admitted he is particularly hoping that Diangana returns from international duty unscathed because of the attacking absences elsewhere.
It means that Diangana, Phillips, Jed Wallace and John Swift, as well as centre forward Brandon Thomas-Asante – effectively the pool of attacking players Corberan inherited when he arrived at the club a little under a year ago and which he inspired quality and consistent performances from as they rose from the bottom three and into the top six over the course of the winter – will be needed. Albion can scarcely afford further setbacks.
While his attacking colleagues are struggling for fitness, Swift has seemingly moved to another level this year – especially in front of goal. The playmaker recently admitted that, despite his numbers, he is after further improvement but since that interview he contributed in moves for three of Albion’s four goals at Preston and then fired the winner against Sheffield Wednesday.
It was a slow start to the summer for Albion’s mercurial talent, but Corberan knows what he is capable of once he gets up and running. Right now, more than ever, Albion need Swift on his game – right now, he is delivering.
“When one player with his quality is ready mentality to compete – he can be the difference,” Corberan said of his number 12. “If one player with his ability is only just focused to play well, it is more difficult to make the difference. I am watching his level of defending and attacking concentration as excellent.
“His commitment and his effort…and when the good players put all the effort in the pitch (then) at the end they have more possibilities to make the difference like he is doing and how he is helping the team.
“I’m watching him very well, especially the moment we are having right now without Sarmiento and without Maja. The goals, contribution and effort of the attacking players is going to be very important to win football games.”