In 48 hours time, we’ll be waking up with butterflies in our stomach and excitement huge excitement ahead of our Premier League opener against Aston Villa.
The question now is who does Eddie Howe select in his starting 11, with the boss facing three real dilemmas as he prepares to name his team for Saturday’s 5.30pm kick-off.
- Anderson, Longstaff or Tonali?
- Gordon or Barnes?
- Wilson or Isak?
For me, these are the three big ones and all are such tough calls for different reasons. Elliot Anderson has been our star player over pre-season, Sean Longstaff is an unsung hero who is often missed whenever he’s absent and Sandro Tonali the second most expensive signing in the club’s history. It’s so tough to call, but I think it’ll be Longstaff, if fit.
On the left, Anthony Gordon has had a brilliant summer and looks full of confidence, yet Harvey Barnes showed his class with two goals in Sunday’s 4-0 win over Villarreal. For the simple reason he may not be up to speed physically (he didn’t play in several of Leicester’s pre-season friendlies) and hasn’t had as long to understand how we work tactically, I think Howe might just favour Gordon.
Up top, it feels wrong that one of Callum Wilson or Alexander Isak could miss out. Wilson was our top scorer last season and loves an opening day goal, but Isak is our club-record signing and unplayable on his day. We could see Isak out wide, allowing both to start, but I’m edging towards Isak up top and the same front three that started our 2-0 win over Fiorentina last Saturday.
With three spots up for grabs at RCM, LW and ST, who do you see Eddie Howe going with?
Barnes is a better finisher than Gordon
Longstaff covers more ground
Isak but it’s a close call
Nice to have decent choices!
Joseph(Quote)