David Moyes will probably be tempted to ring the changes for the trip to Forest at the weekend after a less than mediocre performance by the team against Man City.
With what will become a rare opportunity to get a full week’s training into the squad we can only hope that the team is now “ready” given his comments that they weren’t before the first game.
Doubts still exist over Craig Dawson although he may be ready but we are unlikely to see Angelo Ogbonna in action according to the boss after spending most of last season recovering from his injury against Liverpool in the November.
This probably means that we will see Ben Johnson remain alongside Kurt Zouma at central defence although in front of them Tomas Soucek’s form has been such that it would be more than interesting to see Conor Coventry given an opportunity with Flynn Downes also needing more tome according to the boss.
It seem certain that Maxwel Cornet will come in – probably for Manuu Lanzini or Pablo Fornals – although the Spaniard had a particularly poor game last weekend and may be excluded. Gianluca Scamacca looks a certain starter.
Possible starting eleven: Fabianski, Coufal, Johnson, Zouma, Cresswell; Rice, Coventry; Lanzini, Cornet, Bowen, Scamacca
So you drop the only player who has scored 2 goals in pre season.
I’m up for giving Coventry a start but in front of the defence with Rice and Soucek slightly in front.
I think, if we want to be a Top 6 games, we need to go to grounds like this with our chests pumped out with a ‘we are taking 3 points today’ attitude. That means playing a more aggresive formation. For me, that means a back 3 of Coufal, Zouma and Cresswell, with Rice sitting in front of them, then Cornet and Bowen on the wings, and Soucek and Coventry in the middle, with Benrahma as a 10, just off Scamacca. You have to let players play in their favourite position to get the best out of them, otherwise you’re losing 20% of their potency and, at these levels, that’s the difference between a great and poor player.
I don’t think the time to make sweeping changes is after losing to back to back prem winners after they’ve added one of the best strikers in the world and we only had 1 fit CB.
Man City are phenomenal,
If we judged players off the back of games with them we would have 11 poor players.
Even vs Spurs last season they had far more shots and possession and on any other day would’ve won.
I would give the same lot a start and let them know they are fighting for their places, there should be some come back. Better to judge players vs Forest and drop anyone who does not respond positively to Sundays game
The addition of Cornet to the team can only be a good thing for us against Forest, but I do hope that we have enough threat and nous to get this over the line with a win. Anything less, and the pressure on the team will rise exponentially.
As a side note, I saw the Sheff’ Wednesday V Sunderland game, last night because I wanted to have a look at Aji Alesse. I have been one of his biggest supporters and I had been pretty convinced that he should have stayed with us. This is in no way a criticism of him, his future potential or how far he will go in his career, but I was hit by the stark realisation of the difference between the levels of U23 football, the football league and the Championship. Aji is in the best place for his footballing development right now.
I agree with this approach, although personally I would play Areola, he is not an injury risk. Don’t risk Dawson, make sure there too. Both Soucek and Formals looked a bit lost and I agree Coventry should be given a DM run with Rice, with Cornet on the left and Bowen right. With Benrahma, Downes, Fornals and Soucek able to come on, please Mr Moyes think about optimising substitutions tactically!!
I hope we don’t do for Johno in CB, I guess we are short. I’m all in for Connor getting a shout though.
Looking forward to seeing Cornet the Cornetto take charge of the left wing