Pellegrini faces very difficult choices

At the very time he needs it, Manuel Pellegrini is facing some of his trickiest selection issues in his time at the club.

And it all comes about via the suspension of Issa Diop for an incident in which he was blameless last weekend when a Spurs player held his arm over an extended period yet the young Hammer saw yellow.

It’s all too late to moan and groan about it now but it makes life very difficult for the manager at a time when he needs all the help he can get with his future hanging on a thread.

The big question is whether he teams up Fabian Balbuena with Angelo Ogbonna or whether he should drop Declan Rice into the back four alongside Oggy.

Should he do the latter it will open up midfield problems which will prove very difficult to solve satisfactorily in a game which is as tough as it gets.

The goalkeeping issue is of course critical and despite him being No 3 and described as a “training ground keeper” it seems impossible to believe that  David Martin will not get the call.

I believe the boss is more likely to go with Fab and Oggy at the back and although that is a worry given the Paraguayan’s recent we simply cannot surely be left so light in midfield.

Here’s the team I would hope he selects: Martin, Fredericks, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Rice, Noble, Snodgrass, Anderson, Antonio, Haller.

I also want to see Nathan Holland on the bench.