Beren Cross
After a fraction under half an hour last weekend, my assumption is Rodrigo’s found enough fitness across the past week to start Saturday’s match for Leeds United. We all know how important the Spain international is and getting him into the starting line-up at the earliest opportunity seems the optimal move to me.
Patrick Bamford should be buoyed by his goal last weekend and be looking to lay to rest some of the demons from his last visit to Molineux. Those dugout tears, on the night his plantar fascia gave up once and for all, will not be far from his mind as he trots out at the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers exactly one year later.
This charade with Wilfried Gnonto would end too. The Italian is evidently the best, if not second best, attacker in the side when everyone is fully fit. Gnonto has to start and cut in off that left flank in what looks like the 4-2-2-2 Javi Gracia used with Watford.
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Jack Harrison and Brenden Aaronson would make way for Gnonto and Rodrigo. Aaronson continues to frustrate and around his goal and assist, reviews of Harrison’s performance last weekend were hardly flattering on the whole.
Tyler Adams brings the one enforced change in the team after his hamstring injury. Weston McKennie has to be given first refusal at taking his compatriot’s shirt. It would take some balancing with him and Marc Roca in the same side, but I don’t fancy Sam Greenwood in there nor Darko Gyabi until we have seen the senior faces have a go.
Liam Cooper may be fit for selection, but messing with a back four which has generally done well across the past few weeks seems like a mistake waiting to happen. I could see an argument for pushing Max Wober into the double pivot for some defensive clout, but even that seems like too much surgery.
Beren’s XI: Meslier; Ayling, Koch, Wober, Firpo; McKennie, Roca; Summerville, Gnonto; Rodrigo, Bamford.
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