Turkish Super Lig champions Besiktas will look to put an end to a four-game league losing run on Friday, when they travel to strugglers Kasimpasa.
The Black Eagles have now suffered four straight league defeats to drop to 10th spot in the table, and they were thrashed 4-0 at home to strugglers Giresunspor last time out.
Match preview
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After narrowly pipping rivals Galatasaray to the title last season, Besiktas enjoyed a relatively strong start to the new campaign, collecting 20 points from their opening 10 games to sit at the top end of the division.
Following a promising victory over Galatasaray, Sergen Yalcin's side would have felt optimistic, but their league form has since taken a sharp dip, starting with a 1-0 defeat to Hatayspor.
The Black Eagles then met league leaders Trabzonspor and were beaten 2-1, before Alanyaspor leapfrogged the Istanbul side with a 2-0 win after the recent international break.
While those all came against sides in the top five, Yalcin will be far more concerned about his side's result last time out, as they met relegation-threatened Giresunspor and were thrashed 4-0 with their cause not helped by a red card shown to centre-back Necip Uysal.
Having also crashed out of the Champions League group stage, losing all five games so far, Besiktas now find themselves 10th in the Turkish top flight, and Yalcin will be desperate for his side to correct their poor form and climb back into the fight at the top end of the division.
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In their bid to return to winning ways, the Istanbul outfit travel to take on a Kasimpasa side who are also in need of a result, given their worrying position at the bottom end of the table.
After a positive start to the season, earning five points from three games, including draws with Hatayspor and Galatasaray, Friday's hosts have struggled to pick up results in the league.
Since that start, the Apaches have won just one of their 11 games, picking up a concerning tally of five points to drop into the relegation zone.
However, the recent appointment of Hakan Kutlu may have brought about some form of improvement, with his first game producing that solitary 2-0 win over Yeni Malatyaspor, before they bounced back from defeats to Gaziantep and Faith Karagumruk by holding Adana Demirspor to a goalless draw away from home.
With that being followed by a 5-0 thrashing of Kestelspor in the Turkish Cup last time out, the Apaches will hope to have turned a corner with the chance to continue their improvement on Friday, as they look to start bridging a six-point gap to climb out of the drop zone.
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Team News
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After earning a draw thanks to a much-improved performance last time out, Kasimpasa are unlikely to make many changes heading into Friday, certainly with regard to the defence.
Florent Hadergjonaj, Jeffrey Bruma, Ryan Donk and Sakib Aytac form an accomplished back line that has arguably underperformed so far, and, following a clean sheet, they will have renewed confidence.
Exciting midfielder Umut Bozok has been the key man at the other end of the pitch this season, contributing five goals and three assists in 14 Super Lig appearances.
Besiktas will be without centre-back Necip Uysal following his red card last time out, while goalkeeper Mert Gunok sustained a bad injury in that game and will make way for Ersin Destanoglu, who started the season as first-choice stopper.
Barcelona loanee Miralem Pjanic will continue to operate in the centre, while Michy Batshuayi will again lead the line following his arrival from Chelsea.
Rachid Ghezzal offers further threat from the wings, while Cyle Larin has impressed recently, netting four goals in 11 games so far this term after helping them to the title with 19 league goals last season.
Kasimpasa possible starting lineup:
Tekin; Hadergjonaj, Bruma, Donk, Aytac; Hajradinovic, Haspolat; Erdogan, Bozok, Varga; Jorgensen
Besiktas possible starting lineup:
Destanoglu; Rosier, Vida, Welinton, Meras; Pjanic, Souza; Ghezzal, Larin, N'Koudou; Batshuayi
We say: Kasimpasa 1-1 Besiktas
Besiktas find themselves in a noticeable slump, and now is the best possible time for Kasimpasa to get a valuable result against the defending champions.
While we do not think the hosts have enough to put the Black Eagles to bed, we do see them battling to earn a point, with Yalcin's men seeming to have lost their winning instinct.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Besiktas win with a probability of 43.36%. A win for Kasimpasa had a probability of 31.83% and a draw had a probability of 24.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Besiktas win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.05%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (9%) and 0-2 (6.99%). The likeliest Kasimpasa win was 2-1 (7.55%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.66%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.7% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 1-1 draw for this match.
