Covid Watch

With the news that the three isolating players are going to miss the next three games, this is a major problem for us.

Capoue and Sema are clearly two of them but I don't think it's clear who the third is (unless I've missed it). Ivic said Cleverley was almost over his knock so wouldn't have thought it was him unless he was tested on the morning of the game. So the other one could be Hughes or Murray.

The 4-3-3 didn't look too bad the other day but not having Sema for three games means we have to play Pedro there as no-one else can play there, even though he's in poor form. We have no cover for Pedro or Sarr as wide attackers.

Unless Cleverley comes back, we have no cover in central midfield either, Dan Phillips would be the next cab off the rank unless Ivic is willing to play Wilmot there.

We also have no cover at full back, so let's hope Ngakia's knock isn't serious. We've got an abundance of centre backs and out of form centre forwards though. We can't rotate as the drop off in quality is so great to the u23s.

If we can stay in touch with the play off pack over the next three games, it'll be a good result for us and then at least we should have some fresh players coming back after quarantine (fun fact, quarantine comes from the old Italian for 40, as people arriving on ships in Venice had to stay isolated for 40 days so they didn't pass on the Black Plague).

 

God, I hope it's not Hughes! Murray not even being in the squad doesn't necessarily mean anything of course as we had both Deeney and Perica on the bench. You mention about backup at full-back, Marc Navarro was on the bench yet didn't get a look-in when Ngakia went off, went with a bloody centre back instead, what does that say about Navarro lol

 

Good point, I'd erased Navarro from my mind. Ivic put Quina to right wing back rather than bringing him on, which doesn't bode well for his future chances!

 

Rolex is better, pretty sure other brands will be too.