View: Midfielder back from suspension – West Brom predicted XI v Swansea
West Brom manager Slaven Bilic is predicted to revert back to a more familiar-looking starting line-up ahead of Saturday’s clash against Swansea at the Liberty Stadium.
Albion return to Championship action this weekend after being dumped out of the FA Cup by Newcastle on Tuesday night – a game that Bilic made nine changes for.
With Bilic clearly prioritising automatic promotion to the Premier League over reaching the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, it is expected that he’ll name a team similar to the one that lost at home to Wigan last week.
From that team, we are predicting two changes with Romaine Sawyers returning from suspension and Kyle Bartley starting due to Ahmed Hegazi suffering an injury in the 2-0 defeat at The Hawthorns.
Sam Johnstone is predicted to return in goals behind a back-four of Dara O’Shea, Semi Ajayi, Bartley and Conor Townsend.
Although Kieran Gibbs returned from injury to play 90 minutes against Newcastle, it’s likely that starting two matches in a week could be too much for the former Arsenal left-back so Townsend’s expected to start.
Rekeem Harper is set to be dropped due to Sawyers’ return from suspension while Jake Livermore and Filip Krovinovic are likely to complete the midfield trio.
Bilic’s attack is predicted to stay the same from the loss to Wigan with Matheus Pereira starting on the right, Callum Robinson on the left and Hal Robson-Kanu up front as the lone striker.
In other West Brom news, Swansea have a serious weakness that West Brom can expose this weekend.