West Bromwich Albion have the chance to put their recent disheartening 1-0 defeat against Birmingham City behind them as they welcome AFC Bournemouth to the Hawthorns for their latest Championship clash.
A second-half goal from Birmingham’s Lyle Taylor was enough to secure the win for the Baggies’ Midlands rivals last time out, in a game that saw Steve Bruce’s side fail to register even one shot on target.
Now with West Brom back at the Hawthorns as they prepare to take on the Cherries in front of their home crowd, they have a great opportunity to give those fans something to shout about by beating tonight’s opponents.
In terms of what the starting XI could look like for the home team, here’s how we think Bruce could line up his side, with some big changes potentially on the horizon.
In goal, despite keeping just two clean sheets in his past eight league games, we predict that Sam Johnstone will still keep his place in the team on this occasion.
For a back three, we anticipate Bruce will once again stick with the trio of Semi Ajayi, Kyle Bartley and Matt Clarke to see if they can keep Bournemouth from finding the back of the net.
With the Cherries scoring 20 more goals than the Baggies this term, this will surely be a tough ask for these three defenders.
For the two wing-back positions, even though he gave the penalty away against Birmingham, we think Bruce will keep Conor Townsend on the left-hand side with Darnell Furlong on the right.
In the middle, the Baggies boss should make a change and take Taylor Gardner-Hickman out of the side, leaving Alex Mowatt and Jake Livermore in central-midfield.
Coming in for Gardner-Hickman, we predict that winger Grady Diangana will come back in to make his first start since February against Swansea City, to see if he can freshen things up from what was a dismal attacking display against Birmingham.
Having been praised for his “magnificent” form in the past by Lee Hendrie, this is exactly what he’ll need to be to not only help his side grab a win but also convince his manager he should be a regular starter from now on.
For the final two positions, we think Callum Robinson will drop out after being “non-existent” at the weekend, with Andy Carroll coming back in next to Karlan Grant.
In other news: Forget Grant: Bruce must brutally axe “dreadful” £18k-p/w WBA dud, he’s been “woeful”
