Starting XI: We expect Sunderland to make four changes against Leicester tonight!

We were awful in the first half against Swansea, and awful in a slightly different way against Norwich on Saturday. While against Swansea we looked completely lost, at Carrow Road we just didn’t look good enough. We reverted back to a back four, with Callum Styles switching from left wing back to right wing, and Luis Hemir getting his first start since the season’s opening day, but neither made much of an impact – although I felt sorry for Hemir, who was starved of anything remotely resembling service.

Norwich, while they didn’t play brilliantly, looked far better than us – I thought we were lucky to get away with a 1-0 defeat. We barely tested their keeper, while in spells, they looked as if they were going to score at any moment.

And it doesn’t get any easier tonight. While Leicester have had a bit of a wobble, they’re a formidable team at this level, and we’ll have to really step it up a level tonight if we’re going to earn anything at all.

So, how will we line up tonight? Dodds has said he’ll rotate over the course of this week, so we should see a change or two. Here’s what we think could happen.

Goalkeeper: Anthony Patterson

Same again in goal – Patterson generally did OK on Saturday and had no chance with their goal.

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Defenders: Trai Hume, Dan Ballard, Luke O’Nien, Leo Hjelde

Ballard’s back tonight, which is a huge positive – I thought Seelt struggled on Saturday and looked a bit off the pace. Hume and O’Nien are pretty much guaranteed their places at present, so the only other decision is left behind. Hjelde’s looked poor in the last couple of games, and bottled out of the challenge that led to Norwich’s goal. Callum Styles could, I guess, play at left back, so he could be an alternative to start there.

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Midfield: Pierre Ekwah, Dan Neil, Chris Rigg

Jobe needs to come out of the team. He’s not creative enough to play in that advanced midfield role, and Rigg showed up well on Saturday from the bench. Ekwah and Neil haven’t been in great form either, but there’s no real alternative here – unless Styles is deployed in central midfield, which is where he plays at international level. I’d actually like to see Styles there, as he looks neat and tidy when he gets on the ball, but I think he’ll drop to the bench tonight.

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Attack: Abdoullah Ba, Naz Rusyn, Romaine Mundle

I thought Ba was a bit unlucky to be dropped on Saturday, but he should come straight back in tonight, with Mundle taking Clarke’s place once again on the left wing. Mundle looks decent enough, but he’s nowhere near Clarke’s level yet, and it’s going to be interesting to see how quickly he progresses over the next few weeks, thinking ahead to Clarke’s seemingly inevitable departure. I think Rusyn will come back into the team tonight – he looked a bit of a threat when he came on on Saturday, and I think it’ll be too much to ask Hemir to start twice in four days having started once in seven months.

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