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Sunderland visit Home Park to face Plymouth in the Championship.
Last time out Sunderland beat Portsmouth and Plymouth lost to Stoke
Sunderland made two changes to the expected starting 11 with Dan Ballard replacing the injured Aji Alese and Alan Browne replacing the suspended Dan Neil. The Black Cats won their fourth league game in a row and have only conceded one goal.
Dan Neil returns from his one match ban but may not reclaim his place in the starting eleven. Wilson Isidor, Poveda, Aleksic and Mepham are expected to be on the bench.
Plymouth lost to a single goal against a Stoke side with an average age of 22 years and 11 months. The Pilgrims played well despite the defeat but are yet to win a game under Wayne Rooney and are currently third bottom with just 2 points from 12.
A late goal from Million Manhoef gave former Pilgrims boss Steven Schumacher victory in his first game back at Home Park since he departed the club last year.
Bali Mumba is expected to play at right back, Brendan Galloway is injured.
Goalkeeper Hazard is to undergo ankle surgery.
Regis le Bris:
“The standards are getting better and better, it is not just a question of winning. We want to raise our level and we want to maintain the way we played before.”
“We want to improve many elements of our game still, it is still fragile and even after four wins it is still possible to lose.”
“Then we will need to keep that level and improve the mentality of the team. At the minute it is good so now we need to avoid relaxing.”
Presser at 1pm Thursday :
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Wayne Rooney:
“Errrmm”
"I think we're improving: The players are understanding the roles I want from them and I think we've played the last three games with a consistency in terms of how we want to play."
“Errrmm”
"I think the players have taken in a lot of information and they've done it really well.
"The first game was really disappointing, but since then there's been three really tight results."
“Errrmm”
"Going forward we are getting the ball into dangerous areas but players need to be in the right positions in the middle of the goal”
“Errrmm”
"If we are clinical and ruthless we win [against Stoke] and you could be sitting here with more points, but we haven't been clinical enough.
“Errrmm”
"There's quite a lot of positives but we have to get the final third right."
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Match Appointments
Referee: JOHN BROOKS
Assistant Referees: Neil Davies & Matthew Wilkes
Fourth Official: Andy Davies
Team Lineups:
Sunderland AFC: (4-3-3) Patterson, Cirkin, Ballard, O’Nien, Hume, Browne, Rigg, Jobe, Mundle, Mayenda, Roberts
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Subs: Moore, Mepham, Hjelde, Neil, Aleksic, Poveda, Watson, Isidor, Rusyn.
Injured: Huggins, Seelt, Alese, Abdullahi.
Plymouth: (4-2-3-1) Grimshaw, Mumba, Gibson, Szűcs, Edwards (c), Randell, Houghton, Forshaw, Cissoko, Bundu, Gyabi, Obafemi, Whittaker, Hardie
Subs: Bundu, Forshaw, Ogbeta, Obafemi, Pleguezuelo, Pálsson, Tijani, Wright.
Injured: Galloway, Hazard
Betting Odds:
Sunderland 9/5 Plymouth 9/2 Draw 18/5
Prutton Predicts: meh
My two pence:
Another fantastic display at Portsmouth, another win but sadly no clean sheet.
Plymouth are yet to win a game and lost 4-0 at Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day, however they have been improving steadily since that result. To be fair they played well against Stoke but failed to convert some great chances and eventually conceded a near post shot.
However we are in confident mood and on a roll for a historic 5 in a row
I’m going for a 2-0 away win.
Live Stream:
https://www.safc.com/live
for overseas fans
Ha’way the Lads
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