The Baggies return to Championship duty following the international break with a tricky lunchtime trip to newly-promoted Oxford United, who have started strongly and are unbeaten on their own patch.
Johnston, whose sparkling loan in the second half of last season prompted Corberan and Albion to shell out £3million to capture his services permanently, has taken time to get up to speed after an uncertain pre-season.
The Republic of Ireland international winger finally started his first game since checking in permanently against Millwall as his side signed off for the break with a disappointing stalemate against the Lions, who were happy to defend and marked Albion’s wing-wizards Johnston and Tom Fellows out of the game.
“Personally now I see him more ready,” Corberan said. “His pre season was very strange. He was probably in a place where you know that you are not going to stay (Celtic) so you have been doing the pre season waiting for movement. The movement arrived in the last moment of the market. He had a problem with contact (a fractured eye socket) that stopped him to play.”
Karlan Grant, back at Albion after a season on loan at Cardiff, was handed an opportunity to impress Corberan in pre-season and grasped it. He started the first eight league games of the season on the left side of Albion’s attack in a very settled Corberan side. Johnston deputised for Grant against Millwall.
“Karlan Grant has been competing at an excellent level,” Corberan added. “Even if Johnston came to the same club, we are not the same team. Last year, for example, on the left he was playing with (Conor) Townsend. This year they are not playing together. He is playing with another player who does different things.
“Last year we were playing with (Brandon) Thomas-Asante and (Jed) Wallace mainly as strikers. This year you are playing with Josh Maja so it means that the type of solutions you need are different. These things need time to adapt for him, for me, for the team and for everyone.
“The minutes of the last game that he was playing helped him massively. I can tell you this because I can see this. Now when I see him in training I can see the work in defence, I can see his reactions, I can see the link with the players so I can see more now again let’s say with more integration to the team. Now he is getting closer to the level of integration that he had before he left the club.
“Against Millwall I saw good things and I see things to improve. I saw both but I know that this game exposure can only help you to achieve your level.”
Johnston and Baggies compatriot Jayson Molumby both played the final 20 minutes of their nation’s 2-0 defeat in Greece having sat out of the Republic’s first tie of the break.
Bar long-term injury absentee Daryl Dike, who is nearing a return, Corberan has a full quota to select from for the trip to the Kassam Stadium, Albion’s first league clash against the Us since 1999, when tomorrow’s hosts dropped out of the second tier.
The clubs have since met at The Hawthorns, in a 2014 League Cup tie that finished 1-1 before the home side edged a penalty shootout 7-6.
Corberan emphasised the need for players in a team complementing each other – and how that fact is the single most important factor in determining a side’s form.
He added there is no use having a full-back who likes to overlap playing with a winger who enjoys hugging the touchline. The head coach said there is no point crossing to a striker who is not in the box and no point playing forward passes through to striker who do not specialise in running in behind.
“Sometimes you may click immediately. Last year this happened. Townsend was more of an offensive full back attacking there and the way we start to play was not the same this year,” added the Spaniard.
“Our winger on the left has been a false striker. Our striker has been taking the number 10 positions but the skills of Grant are different to the skills of Johnston so when you change a player you still need time to adapt.
“That’s why I think it’s important to have complements within the players. The first 11 we start playing with this season there was a lot. That’s why for me the team was competing and playing well.”