With Almiron and Shelvey tipped to return by Steve Bruce and is putting in a poor display in our last outing at Burnley, it looks like there’ll be a few changes made ahead of today’s clash with Crystal Palace.
Saint-Maximin, Clark, Ritchie, Lascelles and Ki have been ruled out once again, but Bruce suggested in his Friday morning presser that both Almiron and Shelvey were ready to return.
With the above in mind, here’s the team we think could start against Palace come 3pm today:
(5-2-2-1): Dubravka – Manquillo, Schar, Fernandez, Dummett, Willems – Hayden, Shelvey – Almiron, Joelinton – Carroll
OUT: S. Longstaff and Atsu?
IN: Shelvey and Almiron?
Considering the above duo are back and their replacements at Burnley (Longstaff and Atsu) put in poor displays, it feels like these are the two big changes Bruce could make.
The NUFC boss did talk about us missing ASM and Almiron’s pace at Burnley, meaning he may be tempted to start Atsu, but I think he’ll persevere with Joelinton out wide.
At the back, I saw some on social media calling for Yedlin to return in a bid to manage Wilfred Zaha’s explosive pace, however Javier Manquillo has been too solid to drop for me.
At centre-back, I’d be tempted to reintroduce Florian Lejeune in a bid to give us that class and creativity from the back, but he may need a cameo appearance or two before he’s thrown into the starting 11 from the odd after 7 months out.
What team do you see Bruce going with today?
