View: Consistency to be key in Bilic selection – West Brom predicted XI v Preston
Slaven Bilic is unlikely to make any changes to his starting line-up ahead of Monday night’s Championship showdown between West Brom and Preston at Deepdale.
The Baggies returned to the top of the table on Wednesday night with a convincing 4-1 win against Bristol City at The Hawthorns.
Preston, on the other hand, did not have the best of midweeks as Alex Neil’s side were hammered 4-0 away at Hull City to see them drop down to fifth.
West Brom’s win and Preston’s loss means that there is now a seven-point gap between Albion and third place and with his team on fire, Bilic is likely to stick with his winning formula.
That means that Sam Johnstone is expected to start in goals behind a back-four of Nathan Ferguson, Semi Ajayi, Kyle Bartley and Kieran Gibbs.
Gibbs returned from injury to score in the win against Bristol City but could not last the entire 90 minutes and was substituted off for Darnell Furlong in the second-half. It’s likely that Bilic will do the same again at Deepdale on Monday.
Jake Livermore and Romaine Sawyers also both returned to the side against the Robins after they both served one-match bans. They are expected to start in the deeper-lying central midfield roles in Lancashire.
Albion’s attacking midfield trio of Matt Phillips, Matheus Pereira and Grady Diangana have been in superb form this season and it would be a shock if Bilic was to make any changes to those three.
One change in personnel that Bilic could make is who starts up front with Charlie Austin coming off the bench to score in his last two appearances. However Hal Robson-Kanu is in even better goalscoring form than Austin at the minute and is predicted to start as the lone striker once again.
In other West Brom news, Albion fans were blown away by this 23-year-old’s display against Bristol City this week.