We are hardly struggling to field an eleven. Let’s have some perspective. We have ten of the starting eleven who played so well against Spurs, plus Suarez (we hope), Sema, Perica and Foster to welcome back. We now know officially that Capoue (and Welbeck) haven’t been frozen out but have been missing with injury. We know that Sarr isn’t far off being ready. Gray’s injury doesn’t seem serious and he and Hughes should be back by the end of the month. This season is going to test everybody’s patience. There will be injuries and god forbid Covid withdrawals too because of the unusual circumstances this season is taking place in. I agree that if we are all sitting down and picking our strongest starting eleven for Friday then the actual line-up will come as a disappointment, but I really can’t see the point despairing. We will still field a competitive line-up and one that did alright last Saturday.
Positive start is going to be really important, not confident we will get one unfortunately due to the ongoing disruption of the squad for a variety of reasons
As an aside, I’ve seen a few people saying Hughes will be back in a couple of weeks, but the article says that’s when he’s expected to rejoin training. After 6/7 weeks off and surgery on a mystery injury, I expect it will take the best part of a month to get fit and sharp after he’s back. Middle of October he might play, if he’s still with us.
Wow, really thought that some players that hadn't featured much would be available for this game. I don't understand how we've allowed it to get to the point that Sarr isn't ready for the start of the season. Think we'll get rolled over here due to lack of physicality in midfield.
If we bring in Sema for Dele-B then it could be sufficient on that front temporarily. A bigger question for me is if Suarez will be used and if so whether he's capable of being a lone striker. Gray has done well there in pre-season and I'm not sure how strong Suarez is with his back to goal. When he played briefly vs Scunthorpe it was with Perica as a two up top. Will Ivic be prepared to sacrifice a midfielder for more attacking threat than we showed vs Spurs, or will we start conservatively, packing the midfield?
12 days ago Leventhal said Sarr was back in the country. If he's only just started training then he must have returned from Senegal just over 2 weeks ago. We don't know why he was there but I'm sure it was an important family matter if the club gave him permission to go, knowing he would miss at least the first game of the season.
Sarr cannot be not ready yet. What sort of football team simply allows current fit players to not be ready for the start of the season? He's either prepping to be sold or he is injured. Same with Capoue, Pererya and Wellbeck.
Good question. But that's not my point. We need better in the team if we want to go up, whether that's new signings or players back from injury.
Unless he's physically incapable of playing for 20 minutes, I'd be putting him on the bench. Have him look like he's coming on throughout the game, to the point of standing there ready. Just to sh*thouse Warnock. Keep him on his toes.
They allowed Sarr to go home for family reasons so is behind the others in terms of pre season training
I was struggling to hear everything Vlad was saying , but think he said quite a few players were quarantined cos of Covid and that a lot of other clubs are in a similar position. I wonder if , given the short break a lot of the international players would have gone back to their home country and then got caught up with the quarantine rules. I don’t think this is ridiculous given that this would be the only chance they’ll have to go back home and visit relatives etc until next summer . would be good for this to have been communicated by the Club though if it is the case.
Foster Ngakia Dawson Wilmot Kabasele Estupiñan Sema Cleverley Quina Suarez Murray Subs: Bachmann Kiko Cathcart TDB Chalobah Perica Pedro is my guess
Dont think he ll start with Suarez as hes only played 20 minutes of English football and that was against Scunthorpe. I expect to see him come off the bench on Friday. The team I think he'll pick Foster, Ngakia,Dawson,Wilmot,Kabasele,Estupiñan Cleverley, Chalobah Quina Sema Murray Compact 3421, as per Spurs friendly. Possibly Dele Bashiru if Sema not ready.
Either way hes not played any football in England. A big ask for him to come straight in and lead the line. I would like to see it happen but I think they ll take the safe option in Murray. Although Murray did look rusty on Sat hes actually had more minutes than any of our players in his pre season with Brighton.
If he was still struggling with a knock you would imagine this would have been mentioned in the injury update. He either had a slight issue and they didn't want to take any chances, or was being rested and Ivic already has an idea of what he's like (probably the same with Foster).
Murray didn't play for Brighton in their only friendly before he joined us. Suarez has now been training with us for 3 weeks.
My mistake then. I was going from Murrays interview where he was talking about having a full pre seasonn with Brighton, must have been referring to training. Anyway my point still stands. Suarez has never played football in England and not much pro football at all. Id be surprised if he was thrown in to the lead the line from day 1. But you never know.
Murray looks far from "the safe option" based on his cameo vs Spurs, he looked way off the pace. I'm hoping Perica is good enough to be ahead of him in the pecking order if fit; if he isn't good enough to be in contention for a starting spot then it would seem a very odd signing. His scoring record in Belgium suggests he should be capable of doing well in this league.
Not sure you can assess the career of a seasoned pro based upon 20 minutes of a pre season friendly. Anyway the only opinion that matters is Vlads, so lets see what he comes up with on Friday.
This is how much Spanish football tails off in quality outside of the top half of La Liga. Success and Penaranda were ripping it up with Granada when they were a lower mid table La Liga team. Neither of them can get anywhere near the bench of our Championship squad. Segunda B is another level down again from that. Suarez may become a top player, lets hope he does, but Im not going to hail him as an attacking saviour based upon a YT highlights package. Its likely he will need to time to adjust, he may not, but that is less likely. Thats the only point I was making before the pedant brigade came flying out the traps.
Just going through our options in forward areas and it's a bit insane. Sarr, Sema, Suarez, Success, Sinclair (ok I wanted to keep the S's going), Penaranda, Deeney, Pereyra, Murray, Gray, Perica, Deulofeu, Pedro.....even Quina is very attack minded. Don't forget we've also got Hernandez to add to the mix hopefully in January. After reading today's comments from the club on fitness and Ivic's pre-match interview, it's clear players like Welbeck, Deeney and Pereyra are still in the club's thinking. If that really is the case it makes you wonder why they signed Murray. I could easily see Deeney now staying, especially as his knee has stopped his recovery progress. With Welbeck, his injury track record could well put off perspective clubs too. I think Pereyra will eventually go, along with Success and Sinclair, but we'll still be bloated up front. I know it's a long season, but just imagine we'll still have Welbeck, Deeney, Deulofeu still on the books when the window shuts!! You'll then have three target men in Deeney, Murray and Perica. Two speed merchants in Suarez and Gray, a wildcard in Penaranda although I see him as more of a left sided forward. The amazing talents of Sarr or Deulofeu on the right. The no nonsense robustness of Sema or the box of tricks Pedro. If we end up with that, I'd say we're even better off than we were in the Premier League.
With Gray out I wonder whether Ivic would entertain playing Welbeck on Friday, he looked pretty sharp in the tail end of last season. If he plays well on TV and even scores then either he will be of use this season or someone puts a bid in, potential win-win here.
Is there some sort of rule that if you're signing from another country you can't possibly be thrown straight in over here? Bit of a weird one.
