No real pace up front but both Taylor and Hemed should have the ability to hold up the ball and bring others into play whilst being a nuisance to the opposition
Which is not that bad a team at all. Really quite positive. Good to see Bonne and Aneke back on the bench - Pratley rested; Solly still out; no Williams or JFC; no Green; no Field.
Even though I'm not really a fan of the 5-3-2 I quiet like the look of that team to be honest. I think the balance on a whole is right and hopefully with Cullen Davis and Oztumer in the middle we will be dynamic enough to play the ball through the lines to the two up top.
Hemed's deserved a start regardless - Green obviously ahead of him but I reckon there's a case for all three forwards starting a game at some stage
I would be very surprised if that ever happens but I’m glad he’s getting a chance. He’s only really played on his own with balls smashed up to him. He’s a proven goal scorer, I think we are going to need him between now and May.
I'm going to be positive here about the injuries. We know that players are sent out 'patched up". I hate to think what state some of them were sent out in before the turn of the year. Hopefully now we can afford to rest players with minor knocks. Actually the Valley Pass boys mentioned on Saturday that Green had been suffering with the same virus (i.e."cold") as Doughty, maybe that's his issue. And heaven knows, Pratley need a rest.
We need to stop getting into the mentality that we have "more knocks" or "even further injuries." Let's just get on with it. The period of explaining how we ended up from 3rd to a relegation battle has gone. Time to focus on the 2nd half of the season now.
Keys to tonight - can the full backs assert themselves and provide attacking width, can Hemed and Taylor hold the ball up and bring others into play, can Ozzy get into pockets of space and feed off that hold up play. Ozzy had a brilliant first 45 minutes in the home game vs Forest, but both sides are very different to that match. Picking Ozzy is quite a bod move by Bowyer though - it's more of a 3-4-1-2 as a result, which makes it quite attacking.
Comments
Good to see Aneke back.
------------Phillips------------
---Lockyer---Pearce----Sarr-----
Matthews------------------Doughty
------Cullen--------Davis------
------------Oztumer-----------
-------Taylor--------Hemed------
Which is not that bad a team at all. Really quite positive. Good to see Bonne and Aneke back on the bench - Pratley rested; Solly still out; no Williams or JFC; no Green; no Field.
Okay.
Will do well with Taylor but a lot depends on Doughty and Matthews getting forward.
Four new injuries not good but Bonne and Aneke back.
Five changes.
3-5-2 if attacking.
Let's go for it.
More of that please.