With Habib Diarra and Chemsdine Talbi back from AFCON, Sunderland have a full strength squad to choose from… or is that HAD a full strength squad to choose from? Last night, rumours were swirling around on social media that Granit Xhaka had an injury that would keep him out for a couple of months – although subsequent rumours suggested it wasn’t as serious as all that, and it was an injury he’d been playing with for the past few weeks. We know Xhaka’s travelled with the squad from the pictures the club
posted online, so fingers crossed he’s fit and the rumours are a load of rubbish! On the basis of Xhaka being fit, here’s how I think we’ll line up today.
Goalkeeper: Robin Roefs
Roefs made a couple of good saves early on against Palace to prevent us from going behind earlier than we did. He’ll have been a little disappointed he didn’t get more on the ball in the lead up to Palace’s goal, but he had another fine game overall – something we’ve come to expect now!
Defence: Nordi Mukiele, Dan Ballard, Omar Alderete, Reinildo
It was great to see Reinildo back in the team last week – he offers so much in every department and is a class act. Ballard and Alderete performed well too; indeed it was Ballard and Mukiele who were heavily involved in the build up to Le Fee’s goal on Saturday, and they were solid defensively, too. Unchanged at the back.
Midfield: Trai Hume, Granit Xhaka (Geertruida), Noah Sadiki, Enzo Le Fee, Chemsdine Talbi
Trai Hume will be in the team, and he’ll play in that hybrid right midfield / centre midfield / right back / centre back position that enables other people such as Ballard and Mukiele to spring forward, as we saw in the build up to Le Fee’s goal on Saturday. I’m hedging my bets and saying Xhaka will play, but if not I think it’ll be Geertruida who comes in as a straight swap. I reckon Diarra will be on the bench today as he is reintegrated back into the team, while Sadiki and Le Fee will stay in their usual positions – Le Bris hinted as much regarding Le Fee, so I don’t see any change there. The only question for me is who plays on the left. Romaine Mundle’s done ok in recent weeks but is still building his match fitness, and something just doesn’t seem right with Adingra, so we could see Talbi straight back in the team. The question here is his fitness – frustratingly he barely played at AFCON, so he could either be raring to go or in need of some training to get up to match sharpness. If it’s the former, I think he’ll be straight back in.
Forward: Brian Brobbey
Brobbey’s been superb recently and will be vitally important today as he looks to add to his goal tally so far. His fitness is spot on now and he’s holding the ball up brilliantly. Hopefully we can get the ball to him a bit more as he’s capable of scoring a decent amount of goals for us, given the chance.
