According to the Shields Gazette’s Miles Starforth, Steve Bruce will rest influential duo Martin Dubravka and Jonjo Shelvey for our big FA Cup clash at West Brom tonight.
Starforth also claims that Dwight Gayle and Javier Manquillo will NOT be named in his starting 11 at the Hawthorns, believing it would be unwise to play the recently injured duo twice in 4 days.
All four played every minute of Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Burnley at St James’ Park, however some may feel Bruce is taking a big risk leaving out the likes of Martin Dubravka – the man who’s quite literally saved us on countless occasions this season.
As for Shelvey, Gayle and Manquillo, all three started for the first time in over a month at the weekend, and the Shields Gazette claim Bruce is reluctant to ‘risk’ any of them.
That said, Shelvey could be a big miss if the likes of Nabil Bentaleb and Sean Longstaff don’t up their game, with Isaac Hayden also putting in a poor display following his return to the side on Saturday.
Matty Longstaff could therefore come into contention, while Miles Starforth also claims Joelinton looks set to start up top – despite a slightly improved display out on the left-hand side vs Burnley.
Let’s hope Darlow steps up, along with whoever is tasked to replace Gayle, Manquillo and Shelvey – who were three of our better platers over the weekend.
It would be risky to ask our recently injured players to start twice in 4 days, but is it an equally big risk to leave out our most important player?
