Eric Ramsay rings West Brom changes with half-dozen selection switches and formation change
Eric Ramsay dolled the dice in the hunt of a first Albion win against Stoke with six changes to his starting line-up.
The head coach has endured a difficult start to his Hawthorns tenure and faces the mid-table Potters in the aim of a much-need Baggies boost.
Albion dropped into the relegation zone in midweek as rivals Blackburn secured a win elsewhere.
Ramsay needs a response from last week's 3-0 capitulation at Portsmouth and the previous home fixture - the humiliating 5-0 drubbing from Norwich.
And Ramsay has rung the changes to face Stoke.
He has made six alterations to the starting line-up from Hampshire, and changed his much-debated 3-4-3 formation to boot.
Into Albion's starting XI come right-back Alfie Gilchrist, left-back Callum Styles, midfielder Alex Mowatt, captain and winger Jed Wallace, debutant Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba and striker Daryl Dike.
Several of those coming into the line-up come out of the cold after no league starts for a number of months.
A relatively surprising start for Dike is the first in the Championship since the final day of last season against Luton.
Gilchrist has not featured from the off in the league since late November and Wallace starts a first game since October 1 when he picked up a serious calf injury at Millwall.
Villa loanee Jimoh-Aloba, one of two teenage deadline day recruits, is handed an immediate debut with his first start in professional football.
His fellow recruit Hindolo Mustapha, signed on loan from Crystal Palace, is not in the matchday squad while he still gets up to speed.
Albion are expected to be the more familiar 4-2-3-1 formation with Wallace on the right flank and Jimoh-Aloba on the left.
Dropping out of Ramsay's side are Danny Imray, Charlie Taylor, Ousmane Diakite, Mikey Johnston, Samuel Iling-Junior - no longer at the club - and Aune Heggebo.
The five other than Iling-Junior are substitutes for Albion, including Johnston, who is feeling the effects of a pubis injury, as Ramsay revealed yesterday.
Visitors Stoke under boss Mark Robins have made five changes.
Albion (4-2-3-1): O'Leary; Gilchrist, Phillips, Mepham, Styles; Mowatt, Molumby; Wallace, Price, Jimoh-Aloba; Dike
Subs not used: Griffiths, Imray, Taylor, Diakite, Whitwell, Johnston, Bostock, Heggebo, Maja
