Nottingham Forest presents a tricky challenge for Unai Emery this evening in the Carabao Cup, they are on a good run of form and will be determined to cause an upset.
Emery has quite a few balls to juggle, he wants to win the match, he wants to give game time to his three long term injured defenders, he wants to rest senior players, he wants to use his fringe players and he wants to give some of the youngsters a run-out.
With all that in mind I anticipate that he will select Martinez in goal, in fact, that one is a no brainer but the defence is not so easy to guess.
Do not be surprised if Emery picks Tolaji Bola at left-back, he is due a call-up and this sort of game is perfect for him, I certainly think he would be a better option to start than Kieran Tierney who will most likely come off the bench at some point.
Rob Holding is almost certain to start in the centre of defence and I expect Mustafi to be selected alongside him. The right-back position will probably go to Calum Chambers over Hector Bellerin.
Midfield is tricky and it would not surprise me to see Emery start with Torreira, Willock and Smith Rowe with Ozil just in front sitting behind Martinelli and Nelson upfront.
So, this is my predicted line-up.
Martínez
Bola
Holding
Mustafi
Chambers
Torreira
Willock
Smith Rowe
Ozil
Nelson
Martinelli
What team do you think Emery should go with?
Not a bad line up, suppose to win Nottingham Forest with that line up with a goal for Martinelli.
Didn’t Jenkinson join Forest? Hope he is on the pitch to prove something to himself, if not Emery. Sorry to digress.
Emery should not run our first team regulars to the ground, nor he should keep resting players. The youngsters should be given a run in this cup and FA cup as well so they are ready when they get called up. Knowing Emery he will run Auba & Guendozi to the ground.
The line up seems good, hope it becomes reality.
I think he’s injured Viju.
Martin, how about a couple of enhancements to the comments box? Like adding an edit option, and if there is an interaction in a comment thread how about getting a notification?
Hope this is achievable. Cheers!
Oops! Just saw about the notification
If Forest put out their top side I expect them to win
as they will have combination we will not have.
However a battling performance is what I am hoping for.
Resting out top 11 for the United game is the real go here.
These games are an opportunity to build + depth answer questions.
Nelson Martinelli ESR Willock Bola Martinez are young
players on the up but are they good enough?
Chambers Holding Mustafi Torreira are older players
with whom doubts remain, again are they good enough?.
Might be too soon for both Hector and Kieran?
Ozil a once great player is struggling with personal issues.
If he could rediscover his swagger it would be LANS 🙂
One game is not enough to judge.
Would love this group to stay together and play
the remaining 5 EL games and any more Carabao games.
By Xmas we will know a lot more about these guys
so in January we can keep/sell/loan or replace
The performance is the key not the result so much.
Try Joel Lopez at LB ?
what about Saka? only played 45 minutes on Sunday.
Saka should indeed play as he only played one half on Sunday. Good game for further raising his confidence.
Also, what is the point of Mavropanos if he doesn’t even feature in the Carabao cup? Sure, he has thus far been somewhat prone to errors, but no more than Holding was mere 2 years ago. A perfect time to start him as he already completed full 90 min. on Friday for the U23s.