Tonight Sunderland will travel to St. Andrews to face 10th place Birmingham City. It will be the 121st meeting between the two clubs, and the first clash since 2018. Here's how I think we'll do...
BIRMINGHAM CITY
It has been a great season so far for the Blues, especially considering they were tipped by many to face the drop. A change of ownership and the appointment of John Eustace seems to have changed Birmingham’s fortunes. They currently sit 10th in the table having picked up 28 points from 20 games, which is a really solid points tally. Scott Hogan is their current top scorer, with the experienced striker bagging nine goals so far this season. Their squad has a really healthy balance of youth and experience, with the squad containing a variety of different players ranging from prospects like Tahith Chong to seasoned professionals such as club captain Troy Deeney. Not to mention former Sunderland loanee Dion Sanderson, who has also been a key member of their solid defence.
John Eustace has been using the 3-5-2 formation utilising wing-backs, and has clearly found what works for his players. Eustace has assembled a good counter attacking team, with the Blues having the lowest average possession stat in the league (41.5%). Just goes to show it’s not how much you have the ball, it’s what you do with it that counts.
As a whole I’d say Birmingham are a well-drilled Championship unit with great team spirit, so I have no doubt this will be a tough test.
SUNDERLAND
Things didn’t go to plan last weekend for Tony Mowbray’s men, with our 1-0 defeat to Cardiff being described as our worst performance of the season. Due to a lot of teams winning around us earlier in the week, the Lads need to kick into gear and pick up a result. Mowbray has revealed that Niall Huggins will be travelling down to St Andrews, as well as 15-year-old prospect Chris Rigg. This is due to a whole variety of injuries that have plagued the squad over the last few months.
During the presser, the Gaffer directly responded to John Eustace’s comments complaining about the EFL schedule. He had this to say: “Right at the top level, one week it’s Pep Guardiola moaning about something, the next it’s Jurgen Klopp moaning about something. We have managers in the Championship moaning about stuff now!” He followed up with “It’s modern day football. You can moan all you want, but the schedule is the schedule. Clubs get financial advantages by playing these TV games, so we just have to get on with it.” A hot take from the Gaffer if I do say so myself.
MY PREDICTION
So my prediction for tonight's match is a 1-1 draw, I’m hoping we can scrape a result. Birmingham will be difficult to break down, they will most likely sit tight and wait for us to over commit. They’re a counter attacking side so that's what we can expect. For me Corry Evans needs to come back into the team, especially after last weekend. We can’t afford to waste chances because Birmingham are very efficient with the ball. Hopefully someone like Patrick Roberts or Ellis Simms can step up and have a good game. It will be tough but I'm hoping we can get a result.
MY PREDICTED SUNDERLAND 11 (FORMATION 3-4-3)
1 Anthony Patterson, 6 Danny Batth, 26 Bailey Wright, 3 Dennis Cirkin, 20 Jack Clarke, 32 Trai Hume, 4 Corry Evans, 17 Abdoullah Ba, 21 Alex Pritchard, 9 Ellis Simms, 10 Patrick Roberts
SUBS: 12 Alex Bass, 8 Elliot Embleton, 16 Amad Diallo, 19 Jewison Bennette, 24 Dan Neil, 27 Jay Matete, 2 Niall Huggins
MY PREDICTED BIRMINGHAM 11
21 John Ruddy, 5 Auston Trusty, 28 Dion Sanderson, 2 Maxime Colin, 11 Jordan Graham, 6 Hannibal Mejbri, 7 Juninho Bacuna, 18 Tahith Chong, 23 Emmanuel Longelo, 9 Scott Hogan, 8 Troy Deeney
SUBS: 1 Neil Etheridge, 14 Jonathan Leko, 3 George Friend, 10 Lukas Jutkiewicz, 35 George Hall, 19 Jordan James, 27 Jobe Bellingham
