Team News

[ron obvious 1,711]

Gunn, Zimm, Hanley, Klose, Lewis, Reed, Vrancic, Leitner, Srbeny, Maddison, Watkins

Subs 👉 McGovern (GK), Husband, Oliveira, Murphy, Raggett, Hernandez, Tettey.

Blimey!

And Pinto''s injury must be worse than thought.

[king canary 8,758]

Must say I''m a bit confused by this set up.

Leitner and Vrancic is a very lightweight central midfield that can easily be exploited.

We''ve spent a good amount on Hernandez yet in what seems a perfect opportunity to give him his first start we''ve gone with Watkins, who has done bugger all so far this season.

[Van wink 2,994]

Wasn’t Pinto on the bench on Sunday?

Watkins eh, he must be doing something in training!

Off to Germany in a little while, fingers crossed.

[kick it off 2,062]

[quote user="king canary"]Must say I''m a bit confused by this set up.

Leitner and Vrancic is a very lightweight central midfield that can easily be exploited.

We''ve spent a good amount on Hernandez yet in what seems a perfect opportunity to give him his first start we''ve gone with Watkins, who has done bugger all so far this season.[/quote]

If you''re going to rest Tettey for a game which given the state of his knees is probably neccessary, then this is probably not a terrible one to do it - Wolves are full of technical "lightweight" type players - they''re not massively physical in the middle.

With you on Marley vs Onel though - I have no comprehension of wtf Watkins has done to deserve a start over Hernandez but it''s frustrating. Hernandez has had very few minutes and looked pacey and direct. Watkins has made numerous appearances and done absolutely nothing of note really. Think he chased down one player to set up Madders for a goal early on in the season, but aside from that he has looked like (and been as an effective as) a lost puppy.

[kick it off 2,062]

Thinking about it - the midfield is probably dictated by the RB situation. Tettey needs a rest if we want to play him in a more winnable game at the weekend. Pinto has clearly had some kind of setback, therefore there is no other option to fill the Tettey role, as Reed has to cover defensive duties - so we end up with Leitner and Vrancic. Don''t like it, but I get it.

[king canary 8,758]

The club had tweeted earlier that Pinto was fit again and back in contention so something has clearly happened.

[king canary 8,758]

@KIO

I see that but I remember Farke mentioning his faith that Watkins could play wing back- I''d have been tempted to do that and shift Reed more centrally but either way it is a bit makeshift.

My concern is less about having someone to stand up to physical players and more how easy that central midfield could be to play through- it lacks mobility and doesn''t really offer much protection to the back 3.

[lincoln canary (& Golden Coppel) 0]

Shows how weak our squad is in certain areas IMO.

Nobody to replace Tettey, a complete rookie to replace Oliveria, and continuing with a central midfielder as a makeshift right back.

This could be a long night.

[kick it off 2,062]

[quote user="king canary"]@KIO

I see that but I remember Farke mentioning his faith that Watkins could play wing back- I''d have been tempted to do that and shift Reed more centrally but either way it is a bit makeshift.

My concern is less about having someone to stand up to physical players and more how easy that central midfield could be to play through- it lacks mobility and doesn''t really offer much protection to the back 3.[/quote]

Farke can say what he likes but I have no faith that Watkins could play a game of cards, let alone Wing back. I''d love to be proven wrong, but I really see no purpose to him starting tonight, just a waste of a player on the team sheet.

Not sure it''s fair to say it lacks mobility as Leitner covered more ground at Derby than any other City player in any game since we started tracking player movements (although I take the point that the speed which he covered this ground didn''t look like Sonic the hedgehog or anything).

There''s not much we could do really to offer protection to the defence with Pinto and Tettey out really. The midfield doesn''t look like it will offer much protection, but at least we know Reed is disciplined and plays the position well in the defensive zones. Moving him to the middle and putting Watkins there may give us a bit more protection centrally, but it also may do that at the expense of leaving us wide open down at RWB if Watkins doesn''t play the position as effectively as Reed. That''s the cost of not signing a RB in Jan I guess, although I understand there''s no point forcing a signing of a sub-standard player if the right one isn''t available (or f**ks off to Benfica etc)

[Darth Canary1 92]

A makeshift right back who''s done a good job and you''ve written off Srbeny already then Lincoln?

[Clint 221]

Where is Wes again?

[Crabbycanary3 994]

I thought Wolves had a couple of big units in midfield, if I remember rightly?

The way they played at Carrow Road, lent itself to more good movement, than muscle tbf.

This could be a direct tactical choice against Wolves, with Watkins (as opposed to Hernandez for example)

Interesting.........

[ron obvious 1,711]

It''s the lack of Ivo that''s worrying me.

[DDD In The Fine City 1]

Someone on Facebook thinks Mrs pinto is having a baby? Not sure if any truth in it

[lincoln canary (& Golden Coppel) 0]

[quote user="Darth Canary1"]A makeshift right back who''s done a good job and you''ve written off Srbeny already then Lincoln?[/quote]

No, but he is a rookie. Which is what I said.

[Chip20 69]

It''s a stroke of genius. Wolves will have been planning all week how to get around the Wall of Tettey and won''t have a scooby what to do now. Pinto clearly cut his lip shaving this morning or something and Watkins is the wildcard that will drive our boys on to dramatic mid-week glory.

Sorted.

I think...

[JF 694]

This is going to be messy

[JF 694]

Great delivery

[ricardo 8,034]

Or not

[Badger 2,745]

Anybody got a link - I can''t get the facebook one to work

[Rogue Baboon 0]

2 goals in 2 games from corners? Strange considering we have been relatively solid defensively

[king canary 8,758]

Eventful start!

[JF 694]

ricardo wrote the following post at 21/02/2018 8:15 PM:

Or not

Don’t know. They look like scoring with every attack and have a lot of pace

[kick it off 2,062]

Binners preparing half time announcement of another star to commemorate the fact we conceded 2 (and counting) vs Wolves whilst they only got beat 1-0.

[Guest]

Just can''t stop thinking that watching us tonight, if we didn''t have Maddison, and we probably won''t next season, the football would be robotic and slow.

Not overly optimistic as others that next season could be better.

[Canary Wundaboy 1,423]

[quote user="keelansgrandad"]Just can''t stop thinking that watching us tonight, if we didn''t have Maddison, and we probably won''t next season, the football would be robotic and slow.

Not overly optimistic as others that next season could be better.[/quote]

Had the same feeling watching us on Sunday.

[......and Smith must score. 1,600]

[quote user="keelansgrandad"]Just can''t stop thinking that watching us tonight, if we didn''t have Maddison, and we probably won''t next season, the football would be robotic and slow.

Not overly optimistic as others that next season could be better.[/quote]Well it''s been pretty slow and robotic pretty much all season so no change there.

[Rogue Baboon 0]

The flip side of that is of the 25mil or so we would receive we could then look to reinvest a fair amount of that back into the team. We would also have shifted a fair amount in wages from other players as well

We would probably have a whole new front 4 this time next year!

[Van wink 2,994]

Disagree Keelan, looks like a good performance apart from conceding two poor goals. There is a lot more movement off the ball and the front two are actually giving us some targets in the box. Lewis, Leitmer, Vrancic all moving the ball well in addition to Maddison. We are still in this.

[Taylor324 36]

Watkins = Passenger