Talented Jeremy Sarmiento warrants special West Brom plan
Albion head coach Carlos Corberan believes Brighton loanee Jeremy Sarmiento’s talent demands a specific regime to increase his robustness.
Sarmiento last week made his return from a month sidelined with an ankle issue and is yet to hit top gear in his loan at The Hawthorns.
But the Ecuador international has shown flashes of the quality that makes Seagulls boss Roberto De Zerbi rate him so highly. Sarmiento, 21, checked in this summer on the back of a metatarsal injury and has suffered several setbacks early on in his career.
“We knew that with Jeremy we’d have to treat a special situation, managing everything very well,” Corberan said of the winger, who has started just once for Albion.
“He was working very well, and as soon as he had more minutes, he suffered the injury. We need to be very focused when he’s ready to have the minutes, but as soon as a player is available it’s because he’s ready for minutes. After it’s my decision – to give more minutes from the start, or from the bench.”
Corberan said on the challenge of increasing the attacker’s minutes: “That’s the target of the loan. If you analyse his minutes in this year, and in the year before, he couldn’t accumulate enough minutes.
“The reason was the injury. We are making a specific plan to help him avoid this. From the medical staff, they are being the most pro-active they can be to avoid it.
“If one day we think it’s been too much, the next day we are going to compensate. His talent demands from us a special attention to detail to have him the most available as possible.”
Last weekend’s bright cameo in the 3-1 victory over Hull, from which Sarmiento’s jinking feet did the rounds on video clips during this week, was the attacker’s 11th appearance on loan at Albion. Just one of those, though, have been starts.
His sole start, at home to Millwall in a goalless draw in late September, led to the subsequent ankle setback, confirmed the following weekend at Preston.
The full Ecuador international has been on the scoresheet for his loan club. He netted a fine strike in the 4-2 Hawthorns win against Middlesbrough in August, to round off the entertaining victory.
He has also been bright in several cameos from the bench in helping his side over the winning line with impressive ball-retention skills and silky footwork. Brighton boss De Zerbi wanted Sarmiento to go on loan to make in the region of 35 appearances to improve his robustness and availability.
