Walsall plays away against 22 placed Southend United tonight and is the most important match this season, maybe even one of the most important in recent years. Walsall finds themselves in the 20th position, eight points above tonight’s opposition. A victory against Southend is the only option, but I can’t see how we will manage to come out from this battle winning. We have not looked like a winning team in weeks, if not months even.
The Saddlers come to this match with a shocking streak of results. The last victory came against Tranmere Rovers back in February.
Today’s team will probably be different in both shape and lineup.
Defender Hayden White received the red card in the last match. Since Dan Scarr is out injured, Walsall has just two central defenders available. If Brian Dutton decides to play three in defence, he probably only have two options. Either we will see Callum Cockerill-Mollett as the left central defender, or wing-back Cameron Norman will slot into the central defence. If he chose the latter option, I can’t see who will slot into the right wing-back position instead of Norman without disrupting the whole line team.
I predict Dutton will revert to a 4-2-3-1 (4-5-1 in defence) tactic tonight with Norman, Clarke, Sadler and Melbourne in the defensive line. Kinsella and Sinclair in central midfield. Gordon, Osadebe and McDonald as attacking midfielders and Lavery as the lone striker.
My predicted lineup:
Roberts
Norman Clarke Sadler Melbourne
Kinsella Sinclair
Gordon Osadebe McDonald
Lavery
One other option could be to drop Osadebe to the bench and play Sam Perry as a central midfielder alongside Kinsella and Sinclair to bolster up the ball-winning and get more bodies in defence. In that case, It may be a 4-3-3 tactic or 4-5-1 with attacking wingers and overlapping full-backs.
Winger and Aston Villa loan Tyreik Wright will miss tonight match since he’s called up to the Ireland U21 national team.
We might also see Rory Holden back on the bench after returning from an injury.