West Brom new signings Josh Maja and Jeremy Sarmiento have already made a positive impact in their new surroundings
New signings Josh Maja and Jeremy Sarmiento have already left positive impressions on the West Bromwich Albion squad in the short time they’ve spent at the club’s training ground so far – as Carlos Corberan eyes more new faces before September’s transfer deadline.
While forward Maja is still building up his fitness levels having passed through pre-season without a club to train with, winger Sarmiento made his debut on Saturday in the 2-1 defeat at Blackburn Rovers as a late substitute, and he caught the eye on the left hand side when offering up a promising cameo.
Sarmiento could be in line for more minutes on Tuesday night as Albion make the short venture north to Stoke City for their tie in the first round of the EFL Cup, while Maja is being aimed at the Baggies’ maiden home match of the season on Saturday, against Swansea City, for his first involvement. Despite the minimal minutes between them, both have boosted the group upon arrival.
“It does give you a lift when you see players of the quality of Josh and Jeremy coming in, it gives you a lift in the same way it gives you a lift when you see Grady [Diangana] getting closer to fitness,” captain Jed Wallace said. “We’ve seen how hard these guys are working back at the training ground and there’s much more – people like Kells [Martin Kelly] who have been injured and out for a long time, he’s come back in and been great around the place. That’s important.
“Those two guys coming in, Josh hasn’t obviously done much of a pre-season and with Carlos you need to be super fit to be ready for action so Josh is going to have to do a bit of work with the sports scientists. Along with Brandon [Thomas-Asante], those two guys can get in behind defences and score goals, so hopefully we see plenty of those two going forward.
“I think you saw Jeremy’s sharpness. We’ve seen that in training straight away. He’s got that sharpness about him, he can just drift past people. You saw that a couple of times in the game. He’s been injured, so it’s not one where you can just play him for 90 minutes straight away. He’s going to have to build his minutes up. He has had a difficult time with injuries, but he’s someone who we’re looking forward to working with as well.
“We need that. It’s a long season, extra minutes are being played, so it’s going to be a long, typical, gruelling season. We’ve still got Grady to come back as well. We’ve got some real quality in this squad and we need to show that throughout the season.”
It isn’t just fitness with Maja and Sarmiento, though – if you’re going to play in a Carlos Corberan team, then you need to be well versed in exactly what that entails, and what the Spaniard demands from each individual across the pitch.
“For me it’s been really refreshing working with someone like Carlos, I think you’ve seen a lot of detail, even from goal kicks, there’s so many ways we can set up,” Wallace added. “That’s why when new lads like Jeremy and Josh come in it’s not just a case of just going straight in, they need to understand what we’re trying to do and build.
“As a manager if you come in and just want to smash it to the channels it’s probably a quicker way to get results but in the long term Carlos is trying to build the philosophy and the mental resilience he talks about with us all the time.”
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