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Exclusive: West Brom’s Captaincy Chaos Revealed! Mowatt’s Deal Confirmed and Wallace’s Destiny in the Balance
When club captain Jed Wallace isn’t in the starting lineup, West Brom manager Carlos Corberan switches around who wears the captain’s armband to keep his five-man leadership group in check. Wallace was benched during Albion’s 3-0 victory over Preston North End on Saturday, as the team secured their spot in the Championship play-offs.
Consequently, Kyle Bartley was given the opportunity to lead the club and he performed admirably, netting the game’s pivotal second goal in the easy victory and assisting Albion in recording their 18th clean sheet of the year. Although many would have anticipated that, in Wallace’s absence, Conor Townsend would take over as the regular next man off the rank, Corberan’s choice had the desired outcome.
The senior leaders who have collectively played a great deal of football for the Baggies over the years are the group of five players that the Spaniard believes he can rely on to guide the team on the field, whether or not they wear the armband. Corberan looks to these players whenever he determines that Wallace won’t be involved right away.
Townsend, Bartley, Okay, and Furlong will be the other team captains, he disclosed, after selecting Jed Wallace as the first captain. “The captains are responsible for certain things that are not assigned to other players. I didn’t want them to know between them who will wear the armband when Wallace isn’t playing because in my opinion they all have same responsibility.
Townsend has accepted the role, and I believe he can do flawlessly, but I felt that someone else should have received the armband as he has served as a captain without one. With him, I wanted to make up for it. I thought Bartley would have more opportunities with the armband, so I wanted him to score the goal he did.”
You could have been forgiven for expecting Wallace to be assured a spot in the starting lineup for a match when Albion needed a win, but that was not the case, even with Corberan’s abundance of alternatives in the wide areas.
It was unreasonable of me not to play Wallace in the starting XI, Corberan said. It would have been unjust of me to play that game without [Tom] Fellows. It follows that there is a moment at which a choice can be made unfairly. After watching the game critically, I realized that we needed some of the players’ contributions as well as some of Wallace’s from the bench.
In addition, Corberan verified that Alex Mowatt is the team’s backup penalty taker when John Swift isn’t playing. On Saturday, in first half stoppage time, midfielder Mowatt scored his second goal of the season from the penalty spot to put Albion ahead. Since joining the team, Brandon Thomas-Asante has received penalties; however,
