Jonny Drury previews West Brom's EFL Cup clash at Fleetwood
Jonny Drury previews Albion's midweek EFL Cup trip to Fleetwood Town.
In the first ever meeting between the sides, Carlos Corberan is expected to ring the changes.
Jonny looks at the new boys, and gives his take on which youngsters the Albion fans may see on Tuesday evening.
In the first ever meeting between the sides, Carlos Corberan is expected to ring the changes.
Jonny looks at the new boys, and gives his take on which youngsters the Albion fans may see on Tuesday evening.
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00:00Hello, Bagley's fans. Welcome to ExpressingStyle.com. My name is Jonny Drury and I'm here with
00:13a little bit of a preview for tomorrow night's game. Albion take on Fleetwood in the first
00:18round of the EFL Cup. The first time Albion have ever played Fleetwood Town, so they've
00:23come up through sort of non-league. They've been a regular in the AFL in recent years,
00:26but Albion have never crossed their paths. The first time will be tomorrow night at the
00:31Highbury Stadium, as Albion make the trip north after that fantastic opening win against
00:37QPR in the Championship on Saturday. And in terms of tomorrow night, we know that there's
00:42going to be very much a different side to the one that we saw at Loftus Road. My sort
00:50of overriding prediction is we'll see 11 changes. We'll see a completely different side starting
00:54the game tomorrow night against Fleetwood, which will largely be made up of Albion youngsters
01:00and the new signings who either we haven't seen so far in a couple of cases and the ones
01:06who made sort of cameo appearances down in West London on Saturday. So just got a bit
01:11of a bit of a run through, a bit of a prediction over who will play. I think in terms of the
01:15new signings, it's pretty clear that the most will play. I imagine Joe Wildsmith will start
01:21in goal, played at Cambridge in the penultimate pre-season game with a young Albion side.
01:28He will take the cluffs and I imagine Ted Kan will be on the bench. I imagine it'll
01:32be a night off for Alex Palmer and a night off for the majority of the players that we
01:38saw, certainly from the start at QPR on Saturday. In terms of the back four, it's going to be
01:44interesting how Albion sort of make up. In terms of the players, we're pretty sure will
01:48Caleb Taylor is one that we're very sure will come in. Whether he goes out on loan after
01:53signing a new contract before the end of the transfer, that remains to be seen. But I imagine
01:57he will play centre-half and we're pretty sure that Paddy McNair will play. We haven't
02:02seen him in a friendly or an Albion shirt just yet. He's been working up to his fitness
02:06since arriving on loan from San Diego. Carlos Corbijn said after the game, you can read
02:11some quotes in tomorrow's Express and Star that if he gets through training okay over
02:15the weekend, I know Albion were in training on Sunday and McNair was training, so if he
02:20got through that okay, he will play at least 45 minutes. As will Gianluca Frabotta, came
02:25off the bench very late at Loftus Road, but he will play at least 45 minutes.
02:31Making up that back four is quite interesting. There's a lot of youngsters, a lot of full-backs,
02:35you know, different positions as well, who've sort of featured in pre-season. One of them
02:39is Diego Nelson, who's been at Albion since about the age of 13. Probably someone who
02:44to the majority of Albion fans won't be that well known, but he played a number of times
02:49in pre-season and featured. As a right-back, you know, now Ethan Ingram has left the football club,
02:54now obviously Pippa Sloan ended. There is no sort of designated or backup right-back that springs
03:02to mind and Nelson has played a bit, so I imagine he is very much in line to get the nod at Fleetwood
03:07tomorrow evening. I imagine Corbijn will play a 4-2-3-1, that's kind of his sort of stock system.
03:13If that's the case for the back four, one of them will be Ousmane Diakite, he came off the bench
03:18at QPR. He will play, I'm pretty sure of that. Alongside him there are options, people like Kevin
03:23Mfambe, but Harry Whitwell is another one who played. He wasn't in the squad, wasn't one of
03:29the three youngsters who travelled to QPR on Saturday, but he has played an awful lot of
03:33football in pre-season and I know he's someone we saw a little bit of last year in the Cup,
03:38sitting against Aldershot. So, he's very much in line and if he was one of the youngsters to
03:44be selected tomorrow evening, I wouldn't be surprised by that. Ahead of them, Lewis Dobbin
03:48is a winger who came in last week on loan from Villa. It's highly likely he will play from the
03:53start. Aswell Devante Cole, I imagine he will lead the line, came off the bench for sort of
03:5820-25 minutes at QPR. He sort of needs minutes of the leg, so he will play. Aside from that,
04:05Fenton Hurd was a player who was among the substitutes, someone who has been around the
04:09first team for quite a while now. It would be interesting to see if he plays in the 10 role,
04:13he's one of the names that springs to mind. Then on the other wing, we're looking at other
04:18youngsters, you could say the likes of Reyes Cleary, although he's probably more of a striker.
04:21But one name who I'll be a fan of, might have seen, I sort of wrote about a few weeks ago,
04:26is Oli Bostock. 17-year-old, handed a professional contract just months into his scholarship. He's
04:33been a sort of Wales youth captain, very, very highly rated within the coaching set-up in the
04:38academy at West Brom. He played an awful lot of football as well in pre-season, arguably more
04:43than some of the PL2 players, the under-21 players. So, it wouldn't be a surprise to see him line up.
04:49But there are other names in there we could see, sort of on the bench. Rhys Hall was on the bench
04:55at QPR. There are other players, the likes of Fellows, sorry not Fellows, I imagine Fellows
05:00will be on the bench. I've just named a few, Fellows, Swift, Maggia, Ajayi, the likes who
05:07you may expect may be on the bench, because they'll want a bit of experience to throw on there
05:12at Fleet if they need it. But there are a number of other names. Mo Fowle is another player as well,
05:17who's probably going to be involved in some form or another. And for Carlos Corberham,
05:23you always want to do well in competitions. But given the situation at the moment,
05:26that he has mentioned a number of times, the financial restrictions that Albia are working
05:30or working under, shall I say, in terms of bringing players in and the need to bring more
05:35players in. If Albion were to go out at Fleetwood on Tuesday night, even though this is something
05:38probably supporters don't want to hear, and us as probably reporters don't want to hear,
05:42because we want to see Albion have a good cup run. But it's not a priority. Certainly the
05:46League Cup anyway falls at the bottom of the pack in order. So, if this young Albion side,
05:52this new Albion side in terms of new signings, if they can go and get a result at Fleetwood
05:55on Tuesday, fantastic. But I think it's going to be more a case of rest in the first team players
06:00and having a little look at the other options that he's got, while also getting the minutes
06:05in the legs of his new signings.