Carlos Corberan tells Jeremy Sarmiento what he ‘must achieve’ to earn first league start at West Brom

Jeremy Sarmiento “must achieve” the “habit” of playing more minutes to break into the starting XI at West Brom, boss Carlos Corberan has said.

The Ecuador winger, on loan from Brighton, has featured in all five Championship fixtures for West Brom this season but his only appearance as a starter came in the Carabao Cup.

Sarmiento missed four months with a broken foot last term and is still building up his fitness, including playing in a training match at The Hawthorns during the international break.

According to the Express & Star, Baggies boss Corberan instructed Sarmiento what he needed to do to get that elusive Championship start.

“In the week before the Huddersfield game, I saw an improvement in his performance level in training,” Corberan added.

“We played three 30 minute games during the break, and he was suffering in the middle 30, but we finished the game.” We’ve taken a major step, both psychologically and physically.

“The good news is that Jeremy’s thinking is fantastic. He has a strong desire to be a prominent player and advance to the position he desires.

“I had one goal before the international break: not to lose Jeremy in any of the training or games.”

“You’re not going to change this quickly with one player who didn’t play much the previous year and then missed four months due to injury.” You will lose this player if you speed up the process. Still, he needs to develop the habit of playing more minutes. How do you develop the habit? That is the task.

“Playing and playing and playing without the worry of whether he performs or not? Performances affect results and we need results here. So Jeremy must achieve this in training.”

Time to unleash him

What Corberan says here makes complete sense.

There is no denying that any player needs to be at their physical and mental best to perform to their top level on the pitch, especially a gifted talent like Sarmiento.

He has had injury trouble and a lack of game time means it is not easy to get that fluency of regular football.

Having said all of that, there is only one way to find that fluency and to find that top level, and that is by playing football.

West Brom have made an okay start to the campaign with a couple of wins, a draw, and two defeats – including to Huddersfield Town before the international break.

But there is significant room for improvement and a player like Sarmiento could be a real wildcard for West Brom this season as they look to put themselves right into the equation for promotion.

It’s time to unleash this key weapon.