Olifinjana. His first two touches yesterday were 30 yards cross-field pinpoint passes. Has to be a shoe-in for Tuesday!
If he does play, it will be in place of Evans and based purely on yesterday's performance, it wouldn't seem unreasonable.
He isn't ready to start yet, fitness wise. Do you seriously think we would leave him on the bench against a league 2 team in the cup yet start him in an important and on paper winnable league match? Unfortunately for him, the planned behind closed door and reserve games in January have in the main being cancelled, all of which he was due to play in to help get him back up to fitness. He did show some nice touches at times, but I wouldn't expect to see him starting any time soon.
I'd rather see a 4-4-2 of some sort, but who the hell do you drop? Even without Olofinjana in the equation it's hard enough. We could try a very ambitious: Mannone Chester Hobbs Rosenior Evans Stewart McKenna Olofinjana Koren McLean Simpson But like I say, very ambitious but probably quite interesting. By the way, I'm not genuinely suggesting we try this
Evans didn't play well yesterday, but neither did anyone else. He has been playing really well for the first choice 11 recently. Would be a shame to rip all that up for a one-off cup defeat.
re Cullen- I think Barmby was hoping he'd score a goal so someone would take him on loan.. if he really wanted a striker to come on and get a goal in a league game he'd have chosen Simpson surely..
We could try whatever system we want but the fact is our best chance of scoring, against any team, is Koren from 20 yards. So any suggested teams have to have him behind the striker. It's annoying because IMO a good old 442 is usually best and Koren doesn't fit into that. This is why we need a striker who can play up front on his own.
Absolutely right. The only person I saw who possibly had a chance of scoring yesterday was McLean; and yesterday was his worst game in a long while. Keep Calm And Pass to Koren! And let's hope there's a striker willing to follow up too, not just give it to Koren to hit and hope!