Mason Holgate's West Brom future addressed as Carlos Corberan makes honest admission

Mason Holgate has not appeared for West Brom this season

Everton loanee Mason Holgate will get his opportunity playing for West Brom, manager Carlos Corberan vowed.

Holgate has not appeared for the Baggies yet despite making his Jamaica debut in the international break.

Instead Kyle Bartley and Semi Ajayi have been preferred and they have been keeping clean sheets.

But Corberan insists he only has "unbelievably positive" words to say about him.

Asked if he was close to appearing, Corberan told his pre match Oxford press conference: "Every player is very close and every player can be far, it is a little bit like this.

"My honest feeling is that I can play with many of my players in the first 11 and feel very confident in the team.

"But sometimes you need to evaluate how the other players are doing. I like to give consistency and stability to the things that are working well, because it is important. In some positions it is more easy to make changes.

"For example the keeper, normally it is a position that you never change and the more you move from back to front it is easier to make some changes.

"Why? Not because of the level of the players, because some positions it is more important to have stability. But I have different options that you evaluate.

"For example I have Callum Styles who is working in a perfect level that he can play in the first 11. But if Styles plays, or you don't play with Torbjørn Heggem, who has been fantastic, or you put Heggem as a left centre-back, or you don't play Kyle Bartley who is playing well, or you move Bartley to the right - sometimes it is like to make one change for Styles is to make three changes.

"It is like three changes to put one in. So you say 'OK let's not touch the line because the line is working well' or sometimes it's 'I want to see this player because this player can add a lot of things'.

"Normally during the season appears opportunities for everyone, so the key for me is how you prepare until it arrives. So far, with Holgate, I can only say unbelievably positive words.

"He called me before the international selection to ask my opinion to go with them. I said that it is fantastic to be with the international team. For the experience, for the minutes, and for him too.

"The level of preparation he has, level of maturity - you come on loan and last year he was in the Championship at the beginning and the Premier League at the end and when you receive loans, loans want to play. The loans are players that don't have minutes (at their parent club) and want to play.

"But when you manage a team, you need to manage the team, you cannot make decisions according to loans or not, but according to the level your players are performing, how things are moving and progressing. According to this, opportunities will come sooner or later and, depending on your preparation, you will use it.

"Tom Fellows last year was the best example. He was preparing himself very well and he used his opportunity very well. It was easier for Fellows because he arrived from a League Two loan, so mentally he was easier to manage. For other players it is a more challenging situation.

"If you don't prepare well then you are not going to use the opportunity and unfortunately in football every game exposure affects you, how I can trust or give more minutes."