I spoke to somebody today who knows somebody, if you'll pardon the ITK bullshit vagueness, and he told me that the youngsters in the first team are absolutely knackered. They've been running on empty for a number of weeks and it's clear to everyone at the club. This probably isn't a revelation to anyone reading this. It certainly wasn't to me. Why are they still playing so much? We've got two games left to try and stay ahead of Southampton and possibly Swansea in order to retain our place in the top 6. We're not going to do that with tired, mentally beaten, inexperienced players. Throw in some of the unfavoured mob and try to get something out of them. They're not that bad, surely?
Or just give chances to the likes of Winks, Onomah, Walker-Peters, Carter-Vickers, Harrison etc. It would seem the club isn't that interested in securing Europa qualification so where's the harm in giving more youngsters a chance to showcase what they could offer in the future? I'd rather see them than those who've already been tried and tested (and failed). Out of interest, is Alli now with the club? If so, could he not be given game time, too? He wouldn't need to be registered as he's an U-21 player. Pritchard played in the final game of last season for 10-15 minutes after his loan at Swindon, so I'm presuming there is a possibility.
Anyone watching the team in the past few weeks will have been able to say the same whether they had connections to the club or not. In terms of the back four we're pretty much stuck with what we have: Walker and Davies are out for the rest of the season, Rose is recovering from an injury while Yedlin is a bit more complicated having played a full season and a World Cup before joining us, plus he's been back-and-forth for USA friendlies since he arrived. The worst part is that, technically, it's a stroke of luck that Dier had a period where he was rested during the season, otherwise he'd be knackered as hell at the moment as well. The problem is the midfield: while we can say that Lamela had a period being rested before coming back into the team a few weeks ago, pretty much the rest of the midfield five have been constants in the team without a break, especially Eriksen. This is where things get confusing, given we have Dembele and Paulinho available as they haven't pissed away their hopes of playing for the club this season. Dembele had a minor renaissance in March, yet he's reduced to cameos from the bench now, while Paulinho had a good performance against Newcastle but has since vanished from the team again (while some of it can be explained by his wife giving birth a couple of weeks ago, that doesn't explain why he wasn't in the squad against Stoke) - while I don't understand why Stambouli's vanished off the face of the earth. If we've decided that it's not worth playing Dembele and Paulinho in case they get injured and scupper a potential summer stranfer, that leaves us with even more scant options - Winks or Onomah Up front is the one that's hard to judge: while it's clear Kane needs a rest, the problem is the backup option is Soldado...and who is confident in him rediscovering his scoring boots at this point in time?
Adebayor has actually been used recently, too. That's when he's not slagging off his family on Facebook. I'd go with Lamela behind Soldado against Hull. It might not sound like a great idea, but I'd rather that than running our best prospects into the ground and risking injuries for the long-term. The Spaniard thrived off support and delivery from out wide when he was with Valencia. Give it a go with our team, for once.
Regarding Stambouli, he has been a member of the travelling party to every away match for ages. Not sure of his level of fitness, but anyone who has been to a recent away game and anyone who gets into WHL early on a match day, will have seen Stambouli going through what appears to be a pre match fitness test on the pitch.
Townsend's played left back before. Or Mason could've played right back, there's a strong connection between centre mids and full backs in modern football, they have a lot of the same skillsets which is why you see Lahm and Alaba shifting between positions from game to game. Essien did it too and Barry and no doubt a number of others. We went for an ill suited but defensive back line and it got picked apart by Diouf, Adam and that bloke on the left wing. I don't think the new manager necessarily has to have chosen all the players signed but I do think it's a big help to bring in one or two players that he really wants and, ideally, has worked with before. We had it with Redknapp when Crouch, Kaboul and Defoe all joined and had previously worked with him at Portsmouth but never since. That's not to say that we didn't try with Moutinho and Schneiderlin but there just always seems to be an excuse, we need to be more decisive, either sign them or don't and move on to the next player that the manager wants. Just make sure you don't miss out on all of them!
I would take a guess and say Stambouli was signed to cut the oranges at half time, or has Adebayor got that job now?!
