There was a point in time where West Bromwich Albion looked absolutely nailed on to finish in the Championship play-offs under Carlos Corberan.

Since the Spaniard signed a new contract at The Hawthorns off the back of talks with Leeds United, who sacked Jesse Marsch on February 6th, the Baggies have picked up four points from a possible 15.

Performances have not dropped off enormously compared to results in that time, but there is a chance that the issues lie deeper than just some misfortune in both boxes.

Earlier on this season in League One, Cambridge United were involved in the early season play-off battle having comfortably consolidated their place in the third tier last season under Mark Bonner.

That saw the manager's stock rise considerably which led to him being prioritised by Rotherham United as a potential replacement for Paul Warne.

Talks took place but in the end Bonner decided to reject the Millers to stay at Cambridge.

Since then the U's have gone from battling away in the top half of the division to relegation fodder, currently sat 23rd, with certain individuals not coming close to the performance levels they were hitting with regularity before the Rotherham approach.

In a much smaller sample size it is not yet possible to blame West Brom's drop-off on Corberan talking to Leeds, but if it goes on any longer it will start to seem like something more than a coincidence.

The Baggies' next three matches are Wigan Athletic and Huddersfield Town at home before a trip to Cardiff City.

All three sides are in terrible form and will be very concerned about dropping to League One.

Albion's current performance, despite the disappointing results, should see them take at least seven points from that run, but they are match-ups where motivation could play a huge role for the sides scrapping towards the foot of the table.

The Baggies have given themselves an uphill task to finish in the top six from this position, six points off with 12 games remaining, and that in itself could see some players lose the fight and needle that they were playing with after Corberan came in.

 

 

There has been a strange symmetry to the fortunes of the Baggies and what has happened to Cambridge since the opening few months of the campaign, potentially showing that players cannot overperform to the same level if the main voice in the dressing room shows signs that they are not in it for the long term.