West Brom predicted XI v Sunderland: Daryl Dike returns, too early for Grady Diangana
West Brom resume their Championship campaign on Monday night with a trip to Sunderland, and Carlos Corberan has the privilege of picking from a refreshed squad.
After a four-week break, the Baggies return to action at the Stadium of Light and Corberan has some huge decisions to make after a handful of key players returned to fitness during the club’s training camp in Spain.
The only expected absence from the West Brom squad is Kean Bryan, who has missed over a year of football since suffering an ACL injury last season.
We expect Daryl Dike to start after continuing his recovery over the break. The 22-year-old returned from a three-month injury during the 2-0 win v Stoke in November, and added more match sharpness with 45 minutes of action in the friendly defeat to Elche.
Karlan Grant and Grady Diangana are also expected to return to the matchday squad, but Monday’s clash could come slightly too early for the star duo to start. Grant missed the final two Championship games of the season but returned in the Elche friendly, while Diangana only returned to training this week following injury problems of his own. [Express & Star]
With that said, we expect Corberan to stick with Jed Wallace, John Swift and Matt Phillips as the trio behind Dike, and the Spaniard’s favoured midfield duo of Jayson Molumby and Okay Yokuslu will start slightly further back ahead of the likes of Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Tom Rogic.
Dara O’Shea, Kyle Bartley and Darnell Furlong all seem nailed on to start in three of the back four positions, while we’ve tipped Conor Townsend to start ahead of Erik Pieters at left-back in a back four identical to that which started against both Stoke City and Elche.
Alex Palmer is also expected to continue his string of starts in goal amid David Button’s continued struggles from the start of the season.
In other West Brom news, the Baggies are in the hunt to sign Ryan Porteous after reported interest from Rangers