Confirmed West Brom starting XI v Bournemouth
Valerien Ismael has named his first official West Brom starting XI tonight for the Championship opener versus Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
Albion kick off the second-tier campaign on Friday night with a trip to the south-coast against Scott Parker’s side.
The big news is that David Button starts in goal, with Sam Johnstone on the bench after summer speculation that he would leave the club with less than one year remaining on his contract. The news was confirmed via the official West Brom Twitter account prior to kick-off.
It looks like Ismael will continue with the 3-4-3 formation he trialled in pre-season and that will hand Darnell Furlong and Conor Townsend licence to roam with Kyle Bartley, Dara O’Shea and Cedric Kipre behind them. Kipre makes his league debut for the Albion after spending the second half of last season out on loan.
New free agent signing Alex Mowatt will make his official debut in the middle of midfield alongside captain Jake Livermore, while Romaine Sawyers has been left out of the squad amid interest from Stoke City.
Grady Diangana, Callum Robinson and Karlan Grant form the attacking trio with confirmation that Matheus Pereira has left to join Al Hilal.
It’s set to be a big night for many Albion players who failed to impress last season.
Diangana and Grant were among those who were on the periphery of the action towards the end of last season, but under new boss Ismael there is a clean slate and they will hope to emulate their Championship heroics of the 2019/20 campaign, with Grant scoring plenty for Huddersfield Town while Diangana helped fire Albion to promotion.
Livermore has also been given a reprieve and it will be interesting to see how his partnership with new signing Mowatt develops.
Albion have been impressive in pre-season with last weekend’s 4-0 thrashing over Birmingham City the highlight, but the acid test comes tonight against a side that looks certain to be bidding for promotion.
In other West Brom news, Wayne Rooney reacts to major Albion transfer question.
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