Sunderland have been handed yet another tough test this weekend as they travel to Ipswich Town in the Championship.
The Black Cats will want to forget about their sorry 3-0 defeat to Newcastle United last weekend, and the best way to do that will be to claim points over the title challengers.
Michael Beale has struggled with consistency since he replaced Tony Mowbray at the helm, having taken seven points from his first four games in charge.
Sunderland have only conceded one goal in their last three league games, but it is problems at the other end of the pitch that is really preventing the head coach from kickstarting his spell on Wearside.
It could be the perfect time to play Ipswich though, with Kieran McKenna’s side without a win in their last five matches in the Championship.
Ipswich could potentially drop out of the automatics with a defeat to Sunderland, while the Black Cats could also slip down outside of the play-off places too.
It will be interesting to see whether Beale goes with the same team that beaten Preston North End on New Year’s Day, but also got thrashed by their derby rivals.
Here is our predicted XI…
Sunderland predicted XI vs Ipswich Town
Anthony Patterson keeps his place in the starting line-up following the Newcastle defeat. The goalkeeper conceded three times but couldn’t do much about any one of them.
Trai Hume occupies the right-back spot after what proved to be a really disappointing performance in the Wear-Tyne derby.
Dan Ballard and Luke O’Nien continue their partnership in the middle of defence, while Aji Alese takes his place on the left.
The 22-year-old is unlikely to last the whole match after recently recovering from a long-term injury, however the absences of Niall Huggins and Dennis Cirkin mean Sunderland don’t have much choice but to start Alese again.
Dan Neil starts in midfield alongside Pierre Ekwah, who had a howler against the Magpies.
Jobe Bellingham was also really poor against Newcastle and should be rested this weekend, with Alex Pritchard taking his place in the middle.
We really struggled without anyone running up the right flank at the weekend, so I expect the ‘talented’ Adil Aouchiche to be given a chance to provide more of a threat out wide.
Nazariy Rusyn didn’t have too many chances in the derby, but will keep his place after netting against Preston.