Starting XI v Wigan

[Royal Biscuitman]

Assuming no players leave/join before the game

.....................McCarthy.........................
Gunter...... Morrisson....... Pearce....... Obita.
...........................Akpan........................
.................Williams.....Karacan.................
.Robson-Kanu...........................McCleary...
....................Pogrebniak......................

[Nameless]

I think Guthrie, Obita, McCarthy and McCleary would be mad to stay if we don't bring anyone star-like in.

We won't bring anyone 'star like' in , luckily. It's kind of up to the existing 'stars' to actually play like stars....

I'd hope we get rid of POG because he's quite shite.

He's not, he's really quite good. I suspect a list of centre forwards we've had in the last 30 years would contain a lot of players much, much worse than him. Although we've also been spoilt by how many good players we've had in that position.

I honestly think that we'll take a chance on the youth with the prime objective of sitting just above the relegation zone with a long term goal of rebuilding, when funds have settled, for the following season.

Hopefully we'll see one or two young layers come through, but it certainly won't be more than that. If we go into the season with our prime objective being to just avoid relegation then first of all we will be setting our sights way too low as the squad is capable of finishing well above that, and secondly we will be relegated because we'll be accepting that losing games is OK and you cannot finesse a season to just avoid relegation...

[floyd__streete]

Teams may not always finish a 38 / 46 game season in the position they deserve, but they damn sure finish within a place or two of it.

Isn't that more or less the same thing

[melonhead]

Mccarthy/feds
Gunter Pearce morrison obita
Guthrie karacan
Williams
Kanu pog mcleary

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Can't believe that you all have Morrison starting considering how poor he was last season.

McCarthy

Gunter
Hector
Pearce
Obita

Williams
Guthrie
Karacan ( If fit )

McCleary
Taylor

Pogrebnyak

[Handsome Man]

Federici

Gunter
Obita
Pearce
Hector

McCleary
Karacan
Akpan
Williams
Taylor

Blackman

With a bit of luck we can get season-long loans for Pogrebnyak and Guthrie, and I am guessing that McCarthy is off.

[MouldyRoyal]

Karacan won't be fit for first game of the season.

Wouldn't be surprised to see HRK playing centrally and Blackman out wide.

I know we have no money but if we could just sign a LB we could push Obita up and it all looks a bit more promising.

[leww_rfc]

Reading: Whitehead, Gurney, Viveash, Williams, Robinson, Parkinson, Caskey, Igoe, Cureton, Butler, McIntyre. Subs: Howie, Hunter, Forster, Rougier, Harper

[Caversham Royal]

Can't believe that you all have Morrison starting considering how poor he was last season.

McCarthy

Gunter
Hector
Pearce
Obita

Williams
Guthrie
Karacan ( If fit )

McCleary
Taylor

Pogrebnyak

Agree with putting Hector ahead of Morrison. Morrison has been shown to be an extremely weak link defensively time & time again when he's played. If finances mean the club can't afford anyone better, he should be back-up to Pearce & Hector at the very, very most!

[shaka's shorts]

Adkins to play 2 teams for 45 mins each tomorrow - interesting to see which u21s get a game. Assuming Karacan isn't fit, here is my guess for 2 players per position:

GK - McCarthy & Feds
RB - Gunter, Cummings
LB - Obita, Kelly (Griffin played for u21 sat, so is clearly not in the squad)
CB - Pearce, Morrison, Hector, Sweeney (Cooper played for u21s)

CM - Guthrie, Williams, Akpan, Tish (or Kuhl)
LM - HRK, Edwards? (Edwards and Stacey are right footed, maybe HRK here?)
RM - McCleary, Stacey?

CF - Pog, Blackman, Tanner, Taylor...

As we know - looks very limited in the striker and wide positions. Samuel played for the U21's saturday, other wise I would have him as one of the 4 strikers and play Taylor LM?

[Ian Royal]

Teams may not always finish a 38 / 46 game season in the position they deserve, but they damn sure finish within a place or two of it.

Isn't that more or less the same thing

Come on Floyd, you're not stupid.

[LoyalRoyal22]

Probably no Williams, Karacan, Guthrie & McCleary. With no new arrivals were looking at bad first month I imagine. Hopefully some youngsters get a real chance .. Kuhl/Tanner/Tish etc

[leww_rfc]

We always start fairly badly though, so in one way it might be best to get all the operations done now.

[LoyalRoyal22]

Also pretty sure Hector & Akpan played in midfield on our last visit to Wigan, & got rings ran around them.

[maffff]

Due to injuries and the impending firesale it'll probably end up looking something like

---------------Andersen
Cummings-Morro-Hector-Obita
-------Tshibola-Kuhl-Akpan
Edwards-----------------Blackman
---------------HRK

Bench:

Lincoln, Sweeney, Long, Taylor, Stacey, Tanner Samuel

[Ian Royal]

...................McCarthy
....Gunter, Pearce, Morrison, Obita
..............Karacan, Guthrie
McCleary.......Williams.......Robson-Kanu
..................Pogrebnyak

Subs: Federici, Hector, Cummings, Taylor, Akpan, Blackman, Tanner.

In light of injury news.

...................McCarthy
..Gunter, Morrison, Pearce, Obita
.................Akpan, Kuhl
Taylor...........Tanner.........Robson-Kanu
.................Pogrebnyak

Subs: Federici, Hector, Cummings, Tshibola, Stacey, Samuel, Kelly.

We have worryingly few tested options on the wing / upfront. Thankfully a lot of our untested options there show some good quality, although few of them are actually strikers.

[SCIAG]

Either:

(5-3-2) McCarthy; Gunter, Hector, Morrison, Pearce, Obita; Kuhl, Tshibola, Taylor; HRK, Pogrebnyak

or

(4-3-3) McCarthy; Gunter, Hector, Pearce, Obita; Kuhl, Tshibola, Taylor; Edwards, HRK, Pogrebnyak

Subs: Feds, Morrison/Sweeney/Cooper, S. Kelly, Akpan, Stacey, Tanner, Samuel

I expect Akpan will play and put in a sterling performance but I'd be much more excited by one of those line-ups (eight Academy graduates apiece! Potentially nine if you count Edwards). I'd also not mind Stacey ahead of Edwards but Adkins clearly prefers Edwards and his performances warrant some game time.

[winchester_royal]

Not completely convinced that this Edwards rise is anything other than a false dawn, but I very much look forward to being proved wrong.

[peterroyal76]

McCarthy
Morrison Hector Pearce
Gunter Guthrie Taylor Akpan Obita
HRK
Pog

[TheBaldOne]

think it will be

McCarthy

Gunter Pearce Hector Obita

Edwards Akpan Taylor Blackman

Pogrebnyak Robson-Kanu

and we will lose 3-1