View: Loan star might miss out, two players unavailable – West Brom predicted XI v Birmingham
It has been over three months since the Championship suspended but, finally, West Brom are set to continue with their charge for promotion this weekend.
First up for Slaven Bilic’s men after the restart is Birmingham City, who will make the short journey to The Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon.
Bilic’s squad is pretty much at full health ahead of the behind-closed-doors fixture in the Black Country with long-term absentees Jonathan Leko and Nathan Ferguson the only players unavailable.
Over the lockdown period, Grady Diangana and Ahmed Hegazi recovered from their respective injuries and are likely to be in the matchday squad against Blues.
However, we don’t see Bilic making any changes to the last starting line-up he named back on March 7 when West Brom drew 0-0 with Swansea at the Liberty Stadium as it was pretty much the line-up that helped the Baggies do so well throughout a successful February.
It means that Sam Johnstone is predicted to starts in goals behind a back-four of Dara O’Shea, Semi Ajayi, Kyle Bartley and Conor Townsend.
Of course, there are a couple of changes that Bilic could make to his defence as Darnell Furlong could return at right-back, Hegazi might replace Bartley and Kieran Gibbs may come in for Townsend. However, based on how well the back-four we’ve selected performed before the lockdown, we cannot see Bilic changing anything.
And the same goes for the midfield with Jake Livermore, Romaine Sawyers and Filip Krovinovic all playing in the three central roles.
West Brom’s options are limited in the centre of the park away from these three as Rekeem Harper, Chris Brunt and Gareth Barry have not played a lot of football this season. Only fitness issues are likely to cause Bilic to name anything other than this central trio, unless the Baggies boss names a team with the game against Brentford in mind next Friday.
In the attack, loan star Diangana might have to miss out because Callum Robinson was in such fine form ahead of the league being suspended. Diangana’s made a big impact off the bench at times this season so could be called upon to do it again this weekend against Birmingham.
Matheus Pereira, arguably West Brom’s player of the season, is very much likely to start on the right-wing but Bilic may switch things up and play Pereira as the number 10 with Matt Phillips returning on the right in place of someone like Krovinovic. But, again, we do not see any major change to the formation or personnel.
That means that Hal Robson-Kanu – West Brom’s top goalscorer – is predicted to start up front.
The 31-year-old has netted a career-best 10 league goals this season and although Charlie Austin scored twice against Blues in December, we can see the turmeric-powered, Cruyff-turning Welshman spearheading Bilic’s attack.
In other West Brom news, fans have been reacting on Twitter after reading that two players could be offered new contracts.
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