Starting this now as I think what we have at present is what we will be running with for Monday. Hogh is in the door but I’d say he will start off the bench given Duran had a really good pre season through the middle.
Trusty, Nygren, Yang and AJ didn’t feature in any pre season game. Trusty was still home in the states at the weekend so I don’t see him starting, Yang was back training before the Boro game but didn’t feature in either friendly. Not sure if Nygren and AJ are back yet. Scales is suspended for our first two league matches also.
With that in mind I foresee a starting lineup as such:
Sinisalo
Donovan
CCV
Murray
Tierney
McCowan
McGregor
Engels
Forrest
Duran
Tounekti
Subs:
Doohan
Ralston
Bernardo
Nygren
Oxlade
Hogh
Osmand
Yang
Hatton
The wings could go anyway but Forrest is the only winger who got a full pre season under him and featured in all the games. Tounekti apparently had a stinker v Milan last week but I think there’s a player there if he can gather some confidence. Duran and Osmand are also capable of playing on the wings and have pace, energy and movement but I don’t really see them providing a creative edge and wanted to take the ball in and run at players - they would likely look to run in behind.
If we build a decent lead up I’d hope that Hatton might get the last 20/30 mins to give him a proper assessment.
The starting XI wouldn’t inspire me with great confidence so there is still huge work needed in the transfer market over the next month.
I’d say unlikely we will see AJ and Engels tonight if the speculation on how close they are to being out the door is through.
I think it’s clear Bernardo, Hatate and Balikwisha are no longer in the manager’s plans but will probably see minutes now as our recruitment is that bad we haven’t got any midfielders in to date despite the fact that we know 4/5 were off at the end of the season.
McGregor continuing on from where he left off last year and passing the buck to the centre backs rather than turning and facing forward on the ball. We badly need a midfielder who can carry out the 6 role properly.
Not really much coming from out wide. Full backs seem to the most likely option. Yang and Duran more look like the type of energy/pressing type wide players, they are not really ones that are going to create and hit the byline or beat players on the inside all that regularly.
Only saw the last five minutes of that as I assumed it was an 8pm kick off. The strong impression I get is that literally nobody in the stadium wants to be there and my assumption is literally nothing has happened in the entire 45 minutes.
Back in the day the start of the football season used to be a big deal greeted with much enthusiasm. Not now. It’s like a Monday morning in January at 6:30am.
It’s quantiy over quality and it’s been the same since probably the end of Rodger’s last full season after Jota got injured.
It’s just getting the ball in the box and hoping something will fall right. Bar Tounekti and Forrest who aren’t reliable enough, we don’t really have players who are willing to be direct and go at players 1 on 1. Yang has had some good moments but looks hesitant where it matters, Duran working hard but I think he is far better through the middle.
Hogh has looked really poor. He looks like the kind of striker who will score goals but do fuck all else so he will require service on a plate which we won’t get with the two wide players who started. I’d take him off and bring on Forrest around the 60 min mark and put Duran through the middle.
