Starting XI: Will Sunderland be unchanged for this afternoon's game against Portsmouth?

01/05/2025 01:00 AM

After our NYD win over Sheffield, will we see any changes to our team today?

For our first game of 2025, Aji Alese came in to replace Dennis Cirkin – who's not hit the heights we know he can since he returned from injury – while Patrick Roberts came back into the team to replace Milan Aleksic as the lads turned in a good display against high flying Sheffield United.

While there weren't many surprises in team selection, there was in shape, with Mayenda playing more as a partner to Isidor. It worked well, although I don't think it was as big a change as it sounds, as either Mayenda or Isidor were dropping in to maintain the regular shape when we didn't have the ball. It worked well though, and enabled both Mayenda and Isidor to take up more natural positions.

Today's game is just as important as Wednesday's game was, and we really need to take all three points to keep pace with the top three. Given that, I don't think we'll see too many changes today.

Goalkeeper: Anthony Patterson

Patterson did well on Wednesday – saving Moore's (admittedly awful) penalty and standing firm in the closing stages, too.

Defence: Trai Hume, Chris Mepham, Luke O'Nien, Dennis Cirkin

I think Dennis Cirkin will come back into the team today and that'll likely be be the only change here. Luke O'Nien hasn't been in the best of form in recent weeks and needs to pick up his form with Alese and, soon, Ballard challenging him for his place, however some of the criticism of O'Nien online this week has been ridiculously over the top. He's been fantastic at centre back for us for ages now – it's almost like some people expect players to be robots and perform with absolute consistency every week. It simply doesn't happen.

Midfield: Patrick Roberts, Dan Neil, Jobe, Adil Aouchiche

I think we'll go with a similar shape to Wednesday, and that means Roberts and Aouchiche playing wide, and Neil and Jobe centrally. I've been hugely impressed – but not surprised – by Aouchiche's performances. He's been like a new signing and I really hope he gets a goal today as he's deserved one. Elsewhere, Roberts and Neil played well against Sheffield United, while Jobe did a lot of hard work without ever influencing the game massively but his off the ball work was incredibly important.

Attack: Wilson Isidor, Elezier Mayenda

Just like O'Nien, Mayenda's been the subject of some pathetic online criticism in the last week or so, but put the proverbial two fingers up to his critics with an excellent display and a lovely calm finish to give us the lead. Isidor showed his quality too, and playing in a two seems to suit them both well – I think we'll see the same approach today.