View: Bilic to axe one player amid job security speculation – West Brom predicted XI v Tottenham
West Brom manager Slaven Bilic is predicted to make one change to his starting line-up for the clash against Tottenham at The Hawthorns on Sunday.
Bilic is reportedly under pressure to keep his job at the Baggies after seeing his side lose 2-0 to Fulham on Monday to extend the club’s run without a league win to 12 games.
According to Telegraph journalist John Percy, concerns are growing over Albion’s poor form this year and a “heavy defeat and poor performance against Tottenham on Sunday will leave the board with a huge decision to make before the international break”.
Although Bilic has played with a variance of 4-5-1 formations in recent fixtures, we predict the Baggies boss to revert to the 5-4-1 system he used at the start of the season.
Bilic played with a back-four against teams you might have expected West Brom to do well again like Burnley, Brighton and Fulham but when Albion played the likes of Everton, Leicester and Chelsea, he opted for a back-five.
With Tottenham one of the most in-form teams in the division at the moment, we predict that he’ll go back to the back-five and drop Filip Krovinovic and replace him with Dara O’Shea.
It might not be a team that West Brom fans are happy with but it’s the team we predict Bilic to field.
Sam Johnstone is nailed-on to start in goals unless something major happens between now and Sunday. Semi Ajayi, Branislav Ivanovic and youngster O’Shea, 21, are predicted to start as the three centre-backs with Darnell Furlong and Conor Townsend starting as the right and left-sided full-backs respectively.
In the midfield, we think that Jake Livermore could partner Conor Gallagher with Matheus Pereira occupying the right-wing and Grady Diangana on the left.
Up front, it would be a shock if Karlan Grant didn’t start in the lone striker position.
In other West Brom news, Guochuan Lai may have handed the Albion ownership over to someone else.
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