West Brom boss Carlos Corberan has kept faith with the team which lined up against Stoke City last Sunday as they line up against depleted Middlesbrough at the Riverside this afternoon.
Albion were held by Stoke City at The Hawthorns on Sunday but they’ve had a full week, without the interruption of midweek commitments, to recover and prepare for this meeting – Boro, meanwhile, progressed to the semi-finals of the EFL Cup on Tuesday night when they comprehensively saw off Port Vale.
Albion, then, line up with Alex Palmer in goal, while Cedric Kipre once again is paired with Kyle Bartley in the heart of defence. They’re flanked by full-backs Darnell Furlong and Conor Townsend, and further afield Alex Mowatt – returning to his former loan club – joins Okay Yokuslu.
The fluid front four remain the same; Jeremy Sarmiento is enjoying his longest senior run of starts and continues on the left here, while Grady Diangana and Jed Wallace are the other players who’ll operate behind lone forward Brandon Thomas-Asante.
The one tweak to the match-day squad which Corberan named against the Potters is the pleasing return of John Swift, who has trained as normal this week and who takes the place of young defender Caleb Taylor on the nine-man bench. Albion are without injured quartet Josh Maja, Matt Phillips, Daryl Dike and Martin Kelly.
Boro, meanwhile, have been hit hard by injury; Seny Dieng, Darragh Lenihan, Lewis O’Brien, Hayden Hackney, Marcus Forss and Emmanuel Latte Lath are among those missing while Matt Crooks and Riley McGree are only fit enough to be named among the substitutes.
