West Brom vs Birmingham City preview: Team news, lineups, score prediction
Ryan Mason is a man under pressure as West Brom prepare to welcome neighbours Birmingham City to The Hawthorns on Wednesday.
West Brom lost 3-2 to Coventry City at the weekend in a game they led by two goals, with Jayson Molumby’s red card at CBS Arena proving costly.
The defeat for West Brom leaves them 17th in the Championship, three points behind next opponents Birmingham.
Chris Davies’ side were 4-1 winners over Norwich City on Saturday and are now just one point outside the playoff places.
West Brom News rounds up all you need to know ahead of Wednesday’s showdown between Albion and Birmingham from The Hawthorns.
Preview
West Brom’s 2-1 win over Oxford United prior to the international break eased some of the pressure on the shoulders of Mason.
However, the heat is very much back on Mason at West Brom after the collapse at Coventry, with that the Baggies’ seventh defeat in 16 Championship games this season.
Albion are more likely to be in a relegation scrap than a promotion battle this season on the basis of what’s been seen so far.
Back-to-back home games with Birmingham and Swansea City this week present Mason with a chance to turn things around, but negative results in both of those could make the pressure untenable.
As for Birmingham, they have lacked consistency but appear to have turned a corner with three wins from their past four matches, scoring exactly four times in each of those victories.
The 4-1 win against Norwich in Philippe Clement’s first game in charge of the Canaries was a real statement of intent, as Davies’ side look to now break into the top six in midweek.
Form guide
West Brom: LDLWL
Birmingham: LWWLW
Team news
Mason will be forced into at least one change due to Molumby being suspended as a result of his red card against Coventry.
This could see Ousmane Diakite join Alex Mowatt in midfield, with Isaac Price more advanced playing off Aune Heggebo.
Jed Wallace is Albion’s only other absentee, but Mason may well tinker further after the loss to Coventry, with Callum Styles pushing for inclusion at left-back in a potential shuffle at the back.
As for Birmingham, Ethan Laird, Lee Buchanan, Scott Wright and Paik Seung-ho are all nursing injuries, while Willum Willumsson is also not yet available.
Given the manner of the win over Norwich, Davies may well elect to go with the same XI for this match, meaning Jay Stansfield playing just off Marvin Ducksch after the latter’s double at the weekend.
Predicted lineups
West Brom: Griffiths; Campbell, Phillips, Taylor, Styles; Mowatt, Price, Diakite; Grant, Heggebo, Johnston
Birmingham: Beadle; Iwata, Klarer, Neumann, Cochrane; Doyle, Leonard; Roberts, Stansfield, Gray; Ducksch
Prediction: West Brom 1-2 Birmingham
Opta’s supercomputer makes West Brom favourites to beat Birmingham, but the form guide suggests otherwise.
Birmingham score goals for fun, while Albion seem unable to keep out opposition teams, which ultimately spells trouble at The Hawthorns.
Mason needs to pull a big result out of the bag, but unfortunately that does not look like arriving this midweek in what we predict to be a narrow home loss.
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