Team for Friday night: 3-4-3 Foster Kabasele Dawson Wilmot Ngakia Chalobah Dele-Bashiru Estupinan Cleverley Quina Perica Subs: Bachmann, Cathcart, Navarro, Murray, Pedro, Penaranda & Phillips. Can't see Suarez or Sarr being involved which will only heighten the anxiety of them being sold! The squad as it stands is good enough to go up, however, if we sell Sarr, Suarez, Capoue, Hughes & Welbeck it'll look considerably weaker and wouldn't even be good enough for top six UNLESS they were replaced adequately. We will see. 1-1 Friday night, Pedro off the bench to score his first Watford goal.
Yeh I notice they don’t mention any specific injuries for those three so it is obviously related to the possibility they may be sold . Whether they just haven’t been training with the squad or are being held back .
Already a load of injuries then ! Still haven't improved our medial team.. And with the history of Chalobah and Cleverley wonder how long they will last. We'll have to play the kids at Oxford.
Surely we were always going to play the kids at Oxford? There's way too much riding on this season in the league, and the League Cup schedule far too compressed, to make it worth our while getting too involved in it.
The cup fixtures so far have basically been treated as glorified friendlies. Combine that with the fact our owners didn't give a **** about the cups in the prem when there was a lot less on the line. Would expect a mix of U23s and squad players.
Looks like the season is starting a bit too soon for us. Already injuries are mounting, and we've not played a minute of competitive football yet. At least the club have started communicating....finally. So now we know who will definitely not be involved, which has made it a little easier to guess the team. Out Gray, Masina, Success, Janmaat, Hughes, Deulofeu, Welbeck, Deeney & Pereyra Those we don't know about (are they training/signed or sold?) Pussetto, Sarr, Kiko, Stevenson & Sierralta Available for selection (I assume) Foster, Bachmann, Ngakia, Navarro, Dawson, Cathcart, Wilmot, Kabasele, Estupinan, Chalobah, Dele-Bashiru, Quina, Cleverley, Pedro, Perica, Murray, Penaranda, Sema, Suarez, Sinclair, Phillips, Barrett From those available, my team would be:- (3-5-2) .............................Foster ...........Dawson, Kabasele, Wilmot Ngakia, Chalobah, Cleverley, Quina, Estupinan ......................Suarez, Perica Subs: Bachmann, Murray, Cathcart, Navarro, Dele-Bashiru, Pedro, Sema Obviously, if Sarr was available I'd start him up front alongside Suarez.
What’s going on with Pereyra? I am certain he was one of the players that had to sign a special extension to his contract to see him through to the end of the season? He is the last person I want near this dressing room. He had a face on the second Pearson walked through the door and I haven’t seen a player visibly down tools like that since Richarlison after Silva got sacked.
https://twitter.com/WD18Fans/status/1303632337910071296?s=19 Sarr in full training but too early for this game.
Pretty piss poor to barely be able to cobble a fit 11 for the opening game of the season, not like a slow start cost us last year.
So for the first game of the Championship season, we are without the following attackers: Pereyra, Pussetto, Sarr, Welbeck, Deeney, Gray, Duelofeu and Success. Sema will only be returning from international duty today. That leaves us with Suarez (who strangely didn't feature against Spurs), Perica (also didn't feature against Spurs), Pedro (played little in preseason due to linking up with the squad later) and Murray (looked very rusty against Spurs). Not going to include Penaranda and Sinclair.
So assume it will be: Foster Ngakia Wilmot Kabasele Dawson Estupian Chalobah Cleverley Tom Dele Suarez Quina Something like this maybe? Not that confident of a win I must say.
In midfield, we are without Hughes, Doucoure and Capoue. We have brought in no extra bodies to cover the three we are now missing. Sema can play midfield at a push but as mentioned he will likely only be meeting up with the squad again today.
Not the worst starting XI, but what will our bench look like? Bachmann Navarro/Femenia? Cathcart (just back from playing 180 minutes of competitive football) Sema (just back from an international weekend) Pedro Murray? Perica? A very unbalanced bench. We are incredibly light in CM.
Probably the same team that played Spurs, but Foster for Bachmann, Suarez for Gray and possibly another attacker in place of TDB.
The only real update is Gray. We knew Sarr wouldn't be ready yet and all the others are injured or deliverately absent. If Suarez isn't in the squad though then god knows.
Yes but we can afford to drop 3 points this week and still win the league by 10 points+. It's not as though a morale-boosting win for a team that had got used to losing for months would achieve anything. Good start/bad start, it really doesn't matter.
Disagree on that. We could well have a starting XI of: Foster Kabasele-Dawson-Wilmot Estupinan-Dele-Bashiru-Chalobah-Ngakia Quina Suarez-Perica Subs: Bachmann, Cathcart, Femenia, Cleverley, Sema, Pedro, Murray That isn't at all a bad XI.
Yeah imagine something like that, wouldn't mind Pedro or Sema coming in for Tom Dele if we play 3-4-3. Will be a really tough test - I think a winning start is so so important after relegation. Boro fully fit and I imagine raring to go under Warnock!
If Suarez isn't involved then surely we have to start Pedro up top. Murray looked well off the pace against Spurs and Perica didn't feature at all.
Just had a look at Boro's results under Warnock, pretty crap at home but away they managed wins at Millwall, Reading, Wednesday and Stoke in Warnocks short time in charge. This is going to be a really hard game.
I imagine it will be similar to the team against Spurs. We don’t know why Foster and Suarez weren’t involved but if they’re both fit you imagine they’d be starters. If Suarez is out, now that Gray’s injured it has to be Murray or Perica. I’d probably go with Murray as he knows the league better, throw on Perica when the old man tires out. Personally would want to see Joao Pedro start, probably in place of Dele-Bashiru. That would at least leave us a central midfielder in the bench too. Desperately need to sign one if Capoue’s not going to feature this season.
