Eddie Howe will have to shake up his starting eleven with Bruno Guimaraes ruled out through injury. The head coach has a decision to make on who to draft into the side to have the best chances of picking up three points at Selhurst Park tomorrow.
Conventional wisdom would be to hand Allan Saint-Maximin his first league start on the left since his heroic performance at Wolves in late August. Allan was injured late in that match and has yet to resume his starting place.
Saint-Maximin’s inclusion would allow Howe to continue with his 4-3-3 as Joelinton would slot back into the midfield three with Sean Longstaff playing the deeper role. This is what happened at the start of the second half against Fulham when Bruno was replaced.
Alexander Isak’s entrance in the 71st minute tweaked the system to a 4-4-1-1/4-2-3-1 with the Swede impressing behind Callum Wilson. Eddie Howe’s comments from his press conference throw some uncertainty into his thinking ahead of tomorrow’s match.
Howe said the following about Isak lending some consideration to the idea the striker could be in line for a start tomorrow:
“We can possibly play Alex in a number of positions. He can play as a No 9, as a striker or out wide, certainly left, but it isn’t his favoured position. His versatility attracted us to him. I was so pleased for him last week.”
Isak could be in contention for a start on the left with Saint-Maximin resuming his impact substitute role. Or he could with a two-man strikeforce with Isak and Wilson upfront from the start. Or conventional wisdom could hold true with Saint-Maximin starting.
It could be telling which route the head coach selects.
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17 comments so far
CLINT FLICK
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:12 PM
Comment #1.
CLINT FLICK
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:14 PM
Comment #2Taco
Any sort of individual dress sense is appreciated, these days.
It’s a deeply beige world out there!
đ
CLINT FLICK
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:14 PM
Comment #3Isak in attack!
CLINT FLICK
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:15 PM
Comment #4So, there i was just kicking me heels…
CLINT FLICK
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:16 PM
Comment #5Stick ya hand out… here’s the bus!
CLINT FLICK
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:17 PM
Comment #6Driver, driver!!!
Toon fans bad
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:19 PM
Comment #7Clint,
So Shelvey is due offski in June as things stand?
carltoon
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:20 PM
Comment #8Sheffield United players embargo, are they the club with Saudi owners.
Toon fans bad
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:20 PM
Comment #9Shelvey’s out till mid Feb according to EPL injury thingy
Toon fans bad
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:23 PM
Comment #10Carltoon,
Aye, Saudi private owner. Thing he’s selling up though.
Transfer Sage
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:25 PM
Comment #11It will hopefully be an interesting end to the transfer window for sure. With players moving out, there is a good chance it indicates some are coming in, especially with freeing up wages from the higher earners.
I know we will have FFP considerations but the Saudi owners will not want to be seen as hamstrung by regulation, they will want to kick on. So I can definitely see some players coming in now who’d maybe have been planned for the summer and some clever accounting done to spread the cost over longer distances for FFP purposes.
Toon fans bad
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:26 PM
Comment #12Problem with flogging Sheff Utd now is they’re sitting 2nd, promotion back to the EPL and the sale price will be a lot more we’d imagine.
Toon fans bad
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:33 PM
Comment #13Eddie makes me laugh when he says they’re looking for a replacement. Not sure how he thinks he can get away with that, but he’s going to say it I suppose.
They must be quite the way down the line and confident of signing his replacement surely. There’s been no risk taken by them so far at all.
Be very very surprised if they’ve just let him go and reacted. Just can’t see it.
Unless they’re quite happy to get a loanee as cover until the summer if they don’t get their target. Not outside the realms of possibility I suppose.
ToonDarnSarf
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:35 PM
Comment #14Raj – good email and discussion regarding TicketGate. The issue is how they do something about it but it wouldnât be that hard for the club to monitor ticket resale sites or set up an email address for fans to report them, then warn/ban people for doing it.
Iâd imagine these companies selling multiple tickets are regularly buying extra tickets from ST holders/members for a slightly inflated price and then offering them for a hell of a lot more online.
CLINT FLICK
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:38 PM
Comment #15Tfb
My understanding is, he hasn’t reached the threshold for the extension, yet!
So, it would seem that there’s a reason for that… don’t ya think?
ToonDarnSarf
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:41 PM
Comment #16My girlfriend just said âletâs set up a frequent sharing cadenceâ on a work call and I physically shudderedâŚ
cleveleysbob
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:55 PM
Comment #17TDS, Idonât even know what that means, but it made me shudder too. đ