[drewks]

West Brom head coach Tony Pulis has expressed his displeasure with midfielder Stéphane Sessègnon after he reported back late after international duty.

Sessègnon plays for Benin, and had featured in two African Cup of Nations qualifiers during the international break but failed to report back to training on Tuesday as he should have.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference , Pulis had this to say on the matter:

It’s disappointing that Sess hasn’t turned up, but I haven’t spoken to him yet.
The Englishman cited Saloman Rondon as a good example of what Pulis expects from his internationals. Rondon spent the international break away playing for Venezuela.

Salomon Rondon was back in and training on Tuesday and he’s come from the other side of the planet [Venezuela].

I suppose TP will use this as an excuse not to play the only flair player we have tomorrow and justify the usual selection of seven centre halves when we play teams below us.

....I presume this is said with a huge tongue in cheek, broken? I'm thinking that TP does like to play Sess when he can but if he steps out of line then he, like anyone else*, will suffer the consequences

*......even one of the 7 centre halves 

[betterthanbaird]

I saw somewhere that Sess only came back yesterday, no chance of him starting if that's true, so McLean and Gardner out wide would be my guess.

[Tibby Baggie]

West Brom head coach Tony Pulis has expressed his displeasure with midfielder Stéphane Sessègnon after he reported back late after international duty.

Sessègnon plays for Benin, and had featured in two African Cup of Nations qualifiers during the international break but failed to report back to training on Tuesday as he should have.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference , Pulis had this to say on the matter:

It’s disappointing that Sess hasn’t turned up, but I haven’t spoken to him yet.
The Englishman cited Saloman Rondon as a good example of what Pulis expects from his internationals. Rondon spent the international break away playing for Venezuela.

Salomon Rondon was back in and training on Tuesday and he’s come from the other side of the planet [Venezuela].

I suppose TP will use this as an excuse not to play the only flair player we have tomorrow and justify the usual selection of seven centre halves when we play teams below us.

....I presume this is said with a huge tongue in cheek, broken? I'm thinking that TP does like to play Sess when he can but if he steps out of line then he, like anyone else*, will suffer the consequences

*......even one of the 7 centre halves 

I hope it's tongue in cheek as well. Sess is on enough money to be able to afford a phone - this incident sounds like he was AWOL and couldn't be arsed to even make a phonecall. Whereas Rondon travelled further and was back grafting in training like he's paid to do.

[betterthanbaird]

Chester left back, Olsson on the bench, Sandro in for Sess (not in the 18) and Leko is on the bench. Midfield looks a bit pedestrian but the numbers could be needed to match Sunderland's 3.

[Stathemwasthebestever]

Chester left back, Olsson on the bench, Sandro in for Sess (not in the 18) and Leko is on the bench. Midfield looks a bit pedestrian but the numbers could be needed to match Sunderland's 3.

Maybe moribund rather than pedestrian.

[Zinman]

Could we possibly pick a team with less pace and width?

[Stathemwasthebestever]

Is Pocognoli injured or did he commit the ultimate sin of proving he can play football when he came on against MU?

[valpayne]

sorry fellas I'm not in the studio today due to work commitments :-(

[WBA Will]

So either Berahino is playing wide in a 4-5-1 or one of Fletcher, Yacob or Sandro is playing wide. I don't really know what to say about that... Feel for the people who have made the journey up, even if the travel was free! I felt the same when I got to St James' Park last season and saw that team.

[Zinman]

No goals at half time.......what a surprise.

---

And no shots on target.....even bigger surprise.