2 friendlies to go I would imagine we'll see something resembling the likely starting line up vs Blackpool for 45 mins on weds.
i dont! i think he will continue to use the opportunities to try out different combis. i reckon he knows his first choice team already depending upon the oppostion
But if he already knows his first team, is he going to play them and give the Blackpool scouts an extra chance to see who to mark, when there's still a game against Chesterfield to give them a good run out?
Same as saturday i would suggest. Injuries permitting. hence why dawson & hobbs were missing. maybe play the 2nd half team first half and vice sersa. but for sure on what ive seen so far (and injuries permitting) the Blackpool line up will be IMO Gulacsi Rosinoir Chester Hobbs Dudgeon Koren Evans McKenna Brady Fryatt Simpson now that the bench numbers have been cut to 5 (by the FL and clubs) then City do have massive amount of quality to pick from. so which 5 would have on the bench ? Barmby - Cairney - Adebola - Mclean plus one from Basso, McShane, Kilbane. Now it been cut from 7 to five a goalkeeper is not compulsory anymore. This rule change is very interesting and gives all managers more to think about.
I'd be 99% sure that we would have a keeper on the bench! I'm sure it was only 5 subs before and almost all teams always had a keeper on the bench injuries permitting!
NP spent over a million on mclean, i'm concerned that although simpson has looked mighty sharp in pre-season, NP might give mclean the nod in the hope that he justifies the fee. i would start fryatt and simpson, leaving him small and energetic or big and physical as bench options depending on how the game pans out. COYH
i cant see simpson starting with fryatt unless they play any friendlys together, at the moment theyve played in separate halves, its not a good way to gain an understanding, id like to see them start together against bradford and chesterfield otherwise i would start mclean with fryatt as they work well together.
Thats the stupidity of cutting the subs bench from 7 to 5. Why change it ? just the clubs who cannot find 18 fit players on match days i guess. Both cups stay at 7 for the bench. Sillyness by the FL.
I imagine we will see something similar to the Liverpool game, but with a few changes here and there to try new partnerships. I'd like to see Chester and Hobbs together, McKenna and Evans/Cairney as well as Fryatt and Adebola.
Against Bradford it doesn't scare me but in Championship I would dread the outcome of that partnership! Don't think it would ever happen in a league match 2 b honest
There's no way on earth that NP will be stupid enough to field his actual first XI before the season starts. You just don't do that. I can imagine he'd try some new partnerships such as Chester/Hobbs and McShane/Bradley as neither of those have been tried yet. Cairney/Harper and Evans/McKenna haven't been tried yet and the above striker partnerships haven't either. Dawson and Rosenior have had less game time than the other players so they should get a game at some point. It seems Townsend, Bennett and McCaffrey were just being tried at the non-league friendlies and they will probably just play at Brid but none of the other games now. East might get another game as they thought it was worth him playing against Liverpool and Atkinson might play again too (it'll be interesting to see where they use him).
