West Brom (H): Predicted line-ups, pre-match thoughts & team news

Olly Hawkins

A fortnight on from that 2-0 win at Crystal Palace, it’s fair to say we’ve had a turbulent few weeks on Tyneside!

Covid cases went ‘well into double figures’, the training ground was shut down and our trip to Aston Villa cancelled, however football will finally return to our screens this Saturday as Slaven Bilic’s Baggies comes to town.

With a ‘big chunk’ of our squad still in self-isolation and set to miss out, it remains to be seen what sort of side Steve Bruce will be able to field.

Either way, you’d have to hope we can still be too good for a West Brom side who are not only without their best player (Mattheus Pereira), but second bottom of the table after conceding more goals than any other Premier League side so far this season (23).

They capitulated in last weekend’s 5-1 defeat at home to Crystal Palace and there’s talk of Bilic being sacked if he fails to win at St James’, so the pressure’s well and truly on the visitors ahead of their trip up to Tyneside.

Team news

With so many squad members said to have tested positive and so little coming out of the club, it’s probably best to start with those who look to be available!

Callum Wilson and Matt Ritchie have trained this week, with the former confirming as much on Instagram and the latter giving the game away in an interview with NUFC TV on Thursday.

Bruce also hinted in his presser that Joelinton is good to do as he tipped the Brazilian to kick on from where he left off two weeks ago, while Isaac Hayden is said to be one of the ‘two or three’ who missed the Palace game through Covid – meaning he should be out of self-isolation and ready to return.

The NUFC boss also said that a few ‘injured players’ are back, but named no names.

With that in mind, the likes of Allan Saint-Maximin, Ryan Fraser, Jamaal Lascelles, Dwight Gayle and Andy Carroll may just be available given they all sat out the Palace game with knocks.

For the visitors, their star man and impressive playmaker Mattheus Pereira is suspended after seeing red in that 5-1 defeat to Palace.

Predicted line up

(4-4-1-1?): ? – ?, ?, ?, Ritchie – ?, ?, Hayden, ? – Joelinton – Wilson.

Aside from the four mentioned above who seem *likely* to feature, it’s impossible to predict how we’ll line up.

The fact Joelinton and Wilson appear to be OK suggests it could be the same 4-4-1-1 formation that saw the pair link up well at Palace, however that may all depend on the options available to Bruce in midfield and defence.

One player to watch out for will be Elliot Anderson – the 18-year-old attacking midfielder who was named on the bench at Selhurst Park following some outstanding displays at U-23 level.

He could well be one of several youngsters involved in the matchday squad, especially when he wasn’t included in the second string side to play Stoke on Friday night.

Another one to watch is Dan Langley, the giant goalkeeper who also missed out on the U-23 squad – suggesting he too may be needed at senior level on Saturday!

The opposition

Here’s a few ones to watch in Slaven Bilic’s Baggies side:

Conor Gallagher – The Chelsea loanee has a bit of everything. He’s someone I was really keen to see us sign over the summer, with him a tenacious, versatile, able to pick a pass and a good bet for a goal too. With Pereira missing, he’ll be the man to keep quiet here.

Sam Johnstone – The Baggies stopper is the only goalkeeper in the Premier League to have made more saves than Karl Darlow this season – which is worrying for them considering they’ve still conceded more than any other side! Hopefully he’s not in inspired form come 3pm Saturday.

Grady Diangana – West Ham fans were furious when they sold him to West Brom, with him one of the most exciting players in the Championship last season during an electric loan spell. He’s struggled so far this season and looks low on confidence, but he’s a box of tricks and match winner on his day.

Predicted West Brom XI: (5-3-2): Johnstone – Furlong, Ajayi, Ivanovic, Bartley, Phillips – Gallagher, Sawyers, Livermore – Grant, Robinson.

Prediction

Again, it’s tough to call when we haven’t a clue what our starting 11 will look like.

The break may have done a few of our players some good, especially when West Brom are on the ropes and far from fresh after playing the last hour of last weekend’s hammering with 10 men.

They may be fancying themselves for a big win given how depleted we could be, but with Wilson fit and up against a side who’ve conceded 23 goals in 11 games, I see us having just about enough to make it back to back wins.

Prediction: Newcastle 2-1 West Brom

HWTL!

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About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

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47 thoughts on “West Brom (H): Predicted line-ups, pre-match thoughts & team news”

  1. Well, i guess we’ll have to wait and see who gets to play since the club are hell bent on not naming names re covid. I guess the game will be given away tomorrow when the ones you expect to start aren’t even at the ground.
    Pointless secrecy really, it’s not like they caught an STD or something ffs, hardly anything to be embarrassed about.

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  2. Eric, re your Aunts situation. Tell your mam to contact Care and support, she can explain that your aunt has been diagnosed with dementia and that she has minimal care in the home. They have a duty to give your aunt a financial assessment and implement a care package better than at present.
    She will qualify for CHF ( CONTINUING HEALTH CARE FUNDING ) through the NHS. She should not be getting social care funding but NHS CHF, because she has significant care and health needs.

    With CHF you can go the direct payments route via the funding they give her. You can either pay carers direct from the funding or an agency can do it for you ( as in Lewis case ) He pays £10. 65 an hour and gets to choose what hours he wants them in. If your Mam doesn’t live with your aunt she can be employed as one of her carers. Lews sister hazel is employed as one of his night carers because she doesn’t live with us. It’s unlikely she’ll get overnight care but could have a carer in from say 6.30pm until 9.30pm like lew does and a carer in the morning for a few hours .

    Here is the Newcastle care and support contact details
    https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/services/care-and-support/adults/contact-care-and-support-adults

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  3. Well after 10 viewings and 3 derisory offers Mr 330, 000k has now increased to 341,000, 9k less than listed but i have accepted as need to get in a bungalow badly.
    If he doesn’t drop offer after survey, i will have enough for bungalow and fees plus be able to install a combi boiler, the rest will just have to not get done, unless i can get my brother out of semi retirement ! ( he’s a builder )
    Main thing is i will have lateral living and finally be able to widen doorways via disability grant/team for his wheelchair and get hoist fitted and a profile bed, all presently impossible.
    As Lew is 6′ 3″ and 13 and a half stone, lifting and supporting him has gotten way too dangerous and taken a bad toll on my joints. This is the last chance saloon for us now, this had better happen is all i can say.

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  5. Thanks Kimtoon. There is a social worker and me mam has power of attorney. That is one of the things I sorted out when I was back. There are carers that My Aunt pays for. My problem was the total lack of follow up from medical professionals who just seemed to drift away and the social worker not following up either.

    Hope the house gets sorted.

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  7. icedog:
    KIM good luck mate you are due a change of luck thats for sure

    Cheers Ice and Eric.

    Eric, is your aunt getting continuing health care funding or social care ? The former is what she should be getting as she can then do direct payments herself from yearly funding package or via an agency.
    The follow up by Doctors is very hit and miss due to covid at present, all Lews specialist are speaking to me by phone at present. GP’s only see urgent cases in surgery after a phone call, it might be best your mam contacts the social worker if she feels your aunt needs increased care package.

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  8. Watching Wolves-Villa. Lots of niggly fouls and Grealish has done a couple of Gealishes. He just seems to like to run into people.

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  9. I looked it up in the dictionary and it is seriously in there.

    A Grealish – to run into another football player in order ro buy a foul.

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  13. Nice stroke of luck for Villa, late pen.
    Grealish lucky to have only a yellow too after a bad tackle from behind earlier .

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  15. Glad you sold the house Kim. Good luck for it all going through smoothly for you.

    I see Dan Langley on the bench. Goalkeeper I think? Our defence is not looking good. At least we have Joelinton up front so we can bang in a few goals of our own! ??

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  18. OMFG get innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
    Miggyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
    lol

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  22. Well a great start but then went stale. Why do we keep playing back? I’ve never seen any team play backward as much as we do..

    We allowed WB back into the game and they are pants. We have no killer instinct at all.

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  25. QWe went back to the Bruce patented 9-0-1 formation for the last 20 mins.

    Did he really want to just defend the 1 nil lead?

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  28. This is it for me with Joelinton as well. He has been total **** again. Olly had him down as a 9 last week. Rubbish. He missed like 3 chances. I dont care what “whoscored” rated him – he missed 3 chances.

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  29. Lewis is having a ‘mare.

    May as well play with 9 between him and Joe.

    Did you see Wilson break and Joe just jog up?

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  39. We are better than West Brom but that doesnt say a lot. They are Championship level and that is where they are headed.

    Glad we won though.

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  41. The BBC website kept the Wolves v Villa banner and teams up until after we scored the first goal, and had the city v utd info up within moments of the final whistle. Bias?

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  42. Match summary:

    We beat a very poor team. Sat back for about 20 mins but at least Bruce changed it up after they scored. A deserved win and well managed by Bruce given the Covid and lack of options. Well done lads. Wilson looked sharp and so glad to have Gayle back. I thought Shelvey had a good game as well.

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  43. It was the non-Hollywood Jonjo which is when I think he plays best. Needs to push up a bit more but when he plays within himself he looks much better.

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  44. Happy with the result in the end, and good subs. That cross from Murphy was sublime! I do like Murphy…

    We got what we deserved though by sitting back when the equaliser came in. I just don’t get why we do that. Any other team would push on for a second to get some comfort but not us.

    So onwards and upwards. We beat a very poor West Brom team today, but only just!

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  45. And that’s us safe now. We probably only need 33 to stay up and 17 after 11 is good. Cue pundits to say Bruce is Manager of the Year.

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  46. Yep: Baggies and Sheffield are down. That leaves only one relegation spot. 33 points needed to stay up, so let’s play some decent football Steve!

    Sheffield have the least points at this stage of the season of any team in PL history. Lower than Derby, who I think finished on 15.

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  47. I will shut up about the NUFC/KGB after this but it is obvious that the Covid later cases were Clark, Lascelles, Fernandez, Hendrick, Manquillo and St Max.

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