Following Saturday’s 0-3 hammering at home to West Ham and the fact Paul Dummett is still out, I can see Rafa reverting to the five/three at the back system that worked so well at Burnley last week.
Ritchie may be out – with him picking up his fifth yellow of the season over the weekend – and this is an issue given he played an important role as a left-wing back at Burnley, however there’s another way Rafa could go about using this system.
Here’s a few ideas, starting with a side that sees Shelvey and Lascelles return, with Kenedy filling in at a left-wing back a very possible option given he regularly played in this role at Chelsea:
Potential team vs Everton? #nufc #efc pic.twitter.com/9Ps3i2n9xO
— Black&WhiteBarmy (@BlackWhiteBarmy) December 4, 2018
Another option is the side below, being the exact system that was used at Burnley, just seeing Murphy replace the suspended Ritchie, with Lascelles coming in as part of our three centre-backs:
Another option..#nufc #efc pic.twitter.com/qwwr5PwvR4
— Black&WhiteBarmy (@BlackWhiteBarmy) December 4, 2018
Atsu has been preferred to Murphy in recent weeks, but he’s so often failed to take his chance – and was absolutely toothless when he came on against West Ham over the weekend.
Shelvey will be pushing for a return, and the first team would give him a route back into the side, whilst Lascelles is likely to be preferred over Clark IF we do go with three centre-backs once again.
Would you be happy if we went with either one of these sides tomorrow?
God help us if Perez starts… 14 games 1 goal 1 assist the guy is constantly Inconsistent. I’d play anyone other than him he needs dropped might make him play better.
TeXas(Quote)
Both of these teams bottle it by leaving Perez in the side – needs to be replaced by Muto (if available) or Longstaff (if NUFC can grow a pair). The teams seem to be the same, with the only difference a choice between Murphy or Shelvey – that’s, no choice, really.
Peter(Quote)