Lewis Dobbin was affected and Carlos Corberan stated this was due to changes in transfer plans and other players’ brilliant form. Nevertheless, the on-loan winger has improved, and is now repaying services to Albion as expected. Dobbin, 21, established from Villa Park to The Hawthorns on a season-long credit after a summer switch from Everton to Villa for £10 million.
At first, Dobbin had to sit and hope for a starting opportunity in the Championship because Karlan Grant and Mikey Johnston offered more than him. Corberan, who knows Unai Emery and the hierarchy of Villa Park perfectly well, finalized the acquisition of the worldwide signing of Dobbin on loan on August 6. But financial realities changed Albion’s priorities and they had to scramble to sign Mikey Johnston from Celtic for £3m on the deadline day.
However, they seem to recover recently with Dobbin gaining his first full second-half appearance against Sunderland and his first-ever league start against Preston. Corberan said that having Johnston was in the plan for years for the club but the change did have an impact on Dobbin. That Grant has returned from Cardiff leaner and meaner has restricted Dobbin even more in terms of playing time.
Corberan mentioned Grant doing great, motivated, and eager to play which was bad news for Dobbin considering competition was about to come in the form of Johnston. Said has had more time to invent himself in the squad after missing pre-season training and arriving late in the transfer window.
As for the player performance and development, Dobbin has also demonstrated statistically an increase in the scale and change in style of the player within the club form. Corberan is happy with the performance of Dobbin particularly in physical duels that the forward excels in. Dobbin, therefore, gets to play more games of football and with every match, Corberan watches his level in training sessions and games go up. Player characteristic mapping to the game environment is therefore very important when selecting a lineup.