Bazunu Bree ABK DCC Perraud JWP Lavia Aribo Alcaraz Edozie Adams Looks like McCarrhy is back fit, so a bit of pressure on Gavlar Assume too soon for new signings, not even any welcome videos published yet.
I once won the World Cup in Football Manager while playing a 10-0-0 formation...7 at the back might be too attack-minded.
I'm going to throw in a real curveball. If we're going to play 5-3-2 (we shouldn't, but if), and we're going to use Onuachu up top, our wingbacks should be Perraud on the left...and JWP on the right. JWP is basically the only player in the squad that can hit good crosses from deeper positions. He also very much blows hot and cold in that advanced midfield position; there are games where he's influential, and many where he's pretty anonymous. But at wingback he hits some wonderful balls into the box, and if we're doing a Che/Onuachu front pair, we'll actually have two attackers that are good from crosses. Also allows us to move Alvarez further up the pitch to focus on providing some flair and drive forward with fewer defensive duties.
It might be. I'm pretty dubious we should be starting James Bree in important Premier League matches, however. He was terrible against Newcastle, and while that could be because he isn't up to speed, this isn't a match where we should be getting him up to speed, either. He should be emergency cover if the Great Fullback Plague of 2022-23 continues, but really we shouldn't expect much else given what we paid.
He is. But despite that, if Jones insists on playing three at the back, I would prefer JWP in that RWB role. And arguably AMN for that matter, though he's had some rough performances himself.
I thought Bree looked decent enough second half. For me it's more about needing Prowsie in the middle. Would weaken our team not having him in there, and we need the JWP-Lavia-Alcaraz combo to play together as much as possible imo.
We've played 3 times since they last played a game. They are hard to beat (not like we are hard to beat where we're not because we still lose all the time, but actually hard to beat in a factual way having only lost 4 times this season and only once at home). They've scored 32 this season to our 17 and conceeded 28 to our 35. They are much better than us and should win comfortably and yet it doesn't feel like a lost cause. Hopefully they'll be a little rusty and slow out the gates having not played for a few weeks and the impetus of our new signings can spur us on to a good performance and positive result.
I get ABK as he is returning from injury so can build fitness. Orsic looks way off the mark so needs game time too but DCC is weird. No idea why Jones doesn't rate him
Actually think it indicates we could be going with a back 4 tomorrow. As if we start with 3 and DCC/ABK play today then even a bench spot for one of them might be too early, and surely we would have a centre back on the bench, not even considering they could pick up a knock.
I'm not so sure about 4 at the back. I think a bench spot will be fine for anyone who plays today. as it's happened a few times this season - indeed, Ballard played 90mins last Friday in Middlesbrough and was on our bench Saturday.