Darren Randolph has an outside chance of holding onto his place for the weekend clash against Manchester City.
Whilst Adrian is favourite to return after his three game ban Randolph has reason to hope that boss Slaven Bilic will stick by him.
And insiders at the club believes the boss could send out a serious message to the squad generally by giveng the stopper his chance at the Etihad.
The keeper has kept clean sheets against both Liverpool at Anfield and making several important saves at the Boleyn along the way and several close to the manager believe he has earned the right to keep his place.
The keeper’s form has taken many by complete surprise after given the early form in the Europa Cup qualifying rounds which saw moves for former stopper Robert Green.
One key source told ClaretandHugh: “He’s done absolutely nothing wrong, even against Bournemouth where he could not be faulted for any of the goals.
“He only has an outside chance of keeping his place but several of us think perhaps he should as his form has been outstanding.
“Should Darren play it will send a message to the entire squad that the pressure is on every one of them and that when they are performing they will keep their places. Slaven has an interesting dilemma.”
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There is little loyalty in football and we moan all the time about players,we should stand by players who ever they maybe if they play well,
A keeper that keeps 2 clean sheets against good sides and make great save in those games deserves to keep his place,
A full back Tomkins who plays in 2 away wins against top 6 teams plus another clean sheet last week deserves to keep his place,
Like wise Sakho and Lanzini deserve to keep there place
If you are going to make changes then players struggling with form should be looked at
Reid,Noble and Cresswell are the only players that have under performed,
Reid will not be dropped with Obe injured,Cresswell performed better the last 2 games,
Noble led by example with heart and energy,
So the team should be unchanged with Ginge or Oxford replacing Obe
Jenks,Carroll,Valentino,Adrien,Zarate Oxford or Ginge ( my bench )
Just a sad old mans choice,
Unless Obiang comes through fit then I would replace Zarate for this game
I would keep the same team apart from Obiang for Lanzini.Thought Lanzini wasnt really at it monday.But that can happen sometimes with the type of player he is.Either way we can go to Citeh & take this game as a free hit.Everyone will expect us to lose in the football world so lets go try & prove them wrong again,just like at the Gooners & Scousers.As long as we give it a go i will appreciate it,unlike the last time we went to Citeh when i was totally embarressed by our performance under hippo 😉
Ofc Ogbonna is out but tonks will take his place & Jenks will play i reckon.
I know what you ment Ty.Tactical changes not enforced ones.Wonder if Tonks will be RB with someone else alongside Reid.Cant see it though.Collins is a good solid player but Silva or Aguero would have him on toast i think.He is great in a battle against a bigger forward but against the little nippy,tricky ones he is way too slow 😉
Agree, and would love to see us go at them even if we lose.
Same team for me with Oxford or Obiang in alongside Reid and hit em on the break. Think we’ll give them a game and with the football we are playing I don’t think we’ll get beat. City will be worried about us after what we did to Arsenal and Liverpool and I can see us getting a point at least from this game.
Agree this is a game we can really have a go at. I’d like to see us out muscle them and hit them on the break. I think we could go and play 4-3-2-1 with Moses, Payet behind sakho but think of a switch to 4-2-3-1 and be brave with Antonio coming in for a real go at their defence. Obiang in for The Jewel from the start and jenks in for Big Og.
Oh, please. 🙂
There are choices, and then there are choices.
Adrián will play.
Also – I would not have Collins at the club – let alone on the bench!!!
Expect you would have Nolan back to,what a Ginge complex,
Oxford should definitely play in this game either as CB or DM against City are much more a threat than Gooners and Liverpool we will need pace to counter Silva, Aguero, Sterling, Navas if he plays and Yaya Toure. Oxford is faster than Tompkins, Reid and Cresswell, Jenkinson might be faster but I doubt there is much in it. I am not sure he would get the chance but I hope he does, I think probably its more likely that Tompkins will play CB and Obiang will go in front the question is does Lanzini, Moses or Antonio get the additional slot presuming that Kouyate, Payet and Noble seem nailed on. City don’t really utilise the flanks too much so he may go with Lanzini in a similar team to that which got the result against Liverpool. I am not convinced that the midfield of City offers a great cushion to the back 5 so with Lanzini and Payet we would have more options to exploit the gaps through their middle. Otamendi might also start instead of Kompany who has a knock and he had a shaky first game, he will definitely improve but he might be someone we can target while he is still finding his feet 🙂 whoever plays hopefully they all play to their best and we can come away feeling positive again COYI !!