Following their 1-1 draw against Brentford at the weekend, West Bromwich Albion will travel to Oakwell on Thursday as they are due to face Barnsley in their next Championship fixture.
The Baggies are at the top of the league standings with a three-point lead over Leeds United, who are placed second on the table. Impliedly, Slaven Bilic’s troops will strive for a win in the upcoming game to continue their dominance.
West Bromwich Albion Team News
Grady Diangana is set to remain sidelined due to his hamstring injury. Kieran Gibbs is back in training but Kyle Bartley picked up an ankle injury during the previous fixture and is expected to sit out against the Tykes.
West Bromwich Albion Predicted Lineup vs Barnsley (4-2-3-1)
Defence
Dara O’Shea was called into action by Bilic after Bartley hobbled off the pitch and the young gun did a decent job. He is seemingly likely to be summoned once again to partner Semi Ajayi in the central defence.
Nathan Ferguson should be able to keep his place at left-back while Darnell Furlong could get the nod to start on the opposite side. The latter had a superb game against the Bees as he managed to score a goal and also won 7 aerial duels.
In goal, Sam Johnstone is expected to start as usual. The custodian has done a decent job between the sticks, making fantastic saves time and again, and has established himself as the first-choice custodian of his side.
Midfield
Bilic is set to persist with the central midfield pairing comprising of Jake Livermore and Romaine Sawyers. Both of them are in a rich vein of more and they do add a lot of bite into Albion’s team.
The former not only has 2 goals and 3 assists to his name after 22 league outings but has also managed to garner 1.9 tackles per game on an average and will once again play an instrumental role for his side.
Matheus Pereira is seemingly likely to start as the central attacking midfielder. He completed 5 dribbles against Brentford but couldn’t find the final output, something which he would like to change this time around.
Attack
Matt Phillips and Kyle Edwards are expected to start as the wingers. With their pace and clever movements on and off the ball, they will definitely look to cause all sorts of trouble for Barnsley’s defensive line.
Hal Robson-Kanu could lead the line once again. The Welshman is a clinical goal scorer and having found the back of the net on 6 occasions, he will attempt to add to his tally of goals.
Statistics Credits: WhoScored