West Brom boss Carlos Corberan has left striker Josh Maja out of the team for the Championship play-off semi-final first leg against Southampton.
Carlos Corberan has taken a calm attitude as he prepares to decide whether to include West Bromwich Albion striker Josh Maja in his squad for the play-off semi-final against Southampton on Friday night. Maja was surprisingly left out of Albion’s first-leg goalless draw at The Hawthorns on Sunday.
The attacker has had some bad luck during his debut season with the club. After sustaining ankle ligament damage at Bristol City in September, Maja was engaged in a challenge at previous club Sunderland in December that resulted in a recurrence of the injury. After returning at the latter end of the regular season, Corberan chose to leave Maja out of the squad when the Saints visited.
All of this raises an intriguing question: Will Maja be involved at St Mary’s? Corberan, who also has Brandon Thomas-Asante and Andreas Weimann at his disposal, as well as versatile skipper Jed Wallace, isn’t concerned about the lay of the land and will make a decision this week depending on Maja’s performance.
“If I didn’t have a striker, the decision with Josh would be done,” Corberan stated. “If I had another striker, the decision would be different. I am not concerned since I will have a striker whatever, so there are more important considerations than that one. We signed Josh Maja as a number nine.
“He is a part of the process, he is an important player for us, and he will be an important player for us in the future, but there are times when you have to look at where you are right now. It’s a choice I haven’t made yet, but I’ll look at the week and how the other players are doing, and then I’ll go through the usual process of making a decision.
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