Sunderland expected XI vs Swansea City: Mowbray’s conundrum & Jobe resting.
Sunderland are set to travel to Swansea City this weekend.
The Black Cats will take on the Welsh outfit in a Championship clash that could determine how their form is going into a busy winter period.
Sunderland had suffered three defeats on a bounce prior to their comfortable 3-1 victory over Norwich City last time out, though they really need to beat Swansea to confidently return to winning ways.
Meanwhile, the Swans’ form has been rather up and down, having lost two of their last three games but claiming four consecutive wins prior to that.
Tony Mowbray has opted to make very few changes in recent weeks, despite a run of poor results. It is yet to be seen whether the Sunderland boss will tweak anything this time round, with the players having a much needed week off after the Canaries clash.
Here is our predicted XI ahead of the trip to Swansea.com Stadium…
Sunderland predicted XI vs Swansea
Anthony Patterson has started all 14 of Sunderland’s matches this season and has looked particularly impressive during the team’s difficult run. He will retain his place in between the sticks in Wales.
Trai Hume, Luke O’Nien and Dan Ballard remain ever present figures in the backline, with the latter finally no longer posing any injury p
Niall Huggins is the only question raised ahead of the weekend, with Dennis Cirkin available to start. While Cirkin is likely to be Sunderland’s first choice left-back for the majority of the season, Huggins is likely to keep his place tomorrow after an impressive start to the campaign.
Pierre Ekwah and Dan Neil continue to run the midfield after forming an excellent partnership together. Tony Mowbray has admitted that Jobe Bellingham is in need of a rest after starting every game so far, so we expect Alex Pritchard to take his spot in the starting line-up.
Patrick Roberts and Jack Clarke will take their places on the wings, while Nazariy Rusyn did enough against Norwich to continue up top ahead of Mason Burstow.
