This is a really important game for us \u2013 which might sound daft given it\u2019s only our second of the season, but with the fixtures we have coming up, and that ridiculous defeat last weekend, we need to get some points on the board for everyone\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n
Key decisions for Regis Le Bris today seem to be around the centre of defence \u2013 Ballard, O\u2019Nien and Alderete failed to cover themselves in glory last week \u2013 and on the wings, where Hume, Angulo, Talbi and Rigg were all below par.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how I think the lads might line up this afternoon.<\/p>\n
Roefs was left badly exposed for both of Ipswich\u2019s goals last week, but coming off the back of signing a new contract he\u2019ll be hoping for a clean sheet and three points to celebrate.<\/p>\n
Defence: Thomas Meunier, Nordi Mukiele, Omar Alderete, Reinildo<\/p>\n
Meunier was the bright point last weekend and will keep his place at right back, while given Methalie\u2019s absence through a suspension picked up in France. Reinildo will be a shoo-in at left back. The centre\u2019s where it gets interesting though. Mukiele and Alderete were the partnership during our strong run-in at the end of last season, and the reality is if Nordi is fit he plays. After being the stand out performer last week it would be incredibly strange to drop Meunier, so if he is at right back Nordi will likely come in at right centre half \u2013 Ballard looked really off the pace last week, so it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see him drop out. Alderete looked severely lacking in match sharpness last weekend, but hopefully he\u2019s had a good week of training to enable him to take his place in the team this afternoon.<\/p>\n
Midfield: Trai Hume, Enzo Le Fee, Granit Xhaka, Noah Sadiki, Nilson Angulo<\/p>\n
Personally, I\u2019d consider Rigg or Talbi coming in for Hume, however I don\u2019t think Le Bris will make any changes to the midfield, with Hume once again playing the hybrid defensive rold, and Le Fee, Xhaka and Sadiki operating from the middle. Sadiki started well last weekend but faded, as did Le Fee, while Xhaka was another who didn\u2019t seem quite right last time out. Hopefully, normal service will be resumed today. On the left Angulo will likely keep his place after his lovely free kick at Portman Road, although he\u2019ll be looking for a major improvement in his all round play, which was pretty ordinary last Saturday.<\/p>\n
Listening to the Fulham guest we had on the pod this week made me think this is a strong possibility today \u2013 we will have the opportunity to counter attack and break at a very high defence, and Isidor\u2019s pace could be a game changer for us. Brobbey should have scored a couple last weekend and may have to settle for a place on the bench today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a really important game for us \u2013 which might sound daft given it\u2019s only our second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,43782,6884,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-754431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-match-previews","tag-opinion","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}