Not confident about Evina, but he must be given his chance. He has waited long enough. After playing a lot of first team matches in Div One the season before last he should be mature enough by now. If he is found to be not good enough after a two-month run then at least we will know. I just hope he will rise to the challenge. There is no doubting his speed and ball-skills, it's his positional play which is suspect but maybe he can learn that playing with the likes of Morro and Hollands every week. "With Jackson" would be even more pertinent, but I not sure if Jackson will keep his place in the team the way he is playing, though Wiggins absence may prolong his run a bit longer.
I didn't think I'd be posting on this subject again because I fully expected Evina to come in last night. The announcement that he was on the bench filled me with a mixture of disbelief and annoyance - the fact that he didn't come on at some stage in proceedings, I found totally astonishing. Seriously, what did we have to lose? Solly could have moved back to his most threatening position, adding further backup to Green by overlapping on the right. There are times when Sir Chris, for all his many motivational attributes and his wonderful feats of last season, closely resembles a rabbit caught in headlights. We're not learning valuable lessons and it seems to me that players who are clearly out of sorts, out of form or out of their class are being played for reasons which have very little to do with Championship tactics and a lot to do with gratitude and sentiment for getting us into this league in the first place. We certainly cannot afford to make the same mistakes, in terms of team selection and tactics, at Ipswich on Saturday.
I think you're right Tewkes - Powell has done this before, last season when Solly withdrew from a game late with illness, Wiggins played on the right, and it really didn't work. Evina's confidence must be rock bottom.
AS you say there was no need to play Solly out of position when there was a perfectly good alternative, the same applies to Pritchard. I think he's putting out what he considers his 11 best players rather than his best team.
Pardew never wanted to pick his best team that season.. he was too interested in picking up his £1.5m when he passed 'GO' he didn't want to leave it too late (in the season) just in case the cupboard was bare when he got there!
This is an interesting article that's just appeared on the OS, giving some insight into why Evina was not automatically included when Wiggins was injured. http://www.cafc.co.uk/news/article/20120927-powell-evina-394668.aspx I have to say that I'd forgotten he was only 20, but as well made as the argument is for not playing him, it makes you wonder why, after being virtually our first signing at the beginning of last season, he's still not considered ready to start. However, as always, in Chrissy we trust...
