So... injury replacements. Given the squad size we may well need one or two, especially if Pasty is down. Wonder If MacMaster or someone is an option there.
Unless we are willing to throw young Lindsay into the deepend another central midfielder would be useful - That way Ward can be pushed further forward into the three with Bertos, Smith, and/or Daniel, if Sanchez is crocked along with Paulie. I'm just not convinced with a midfield pairing of Brown and Ward.
Any ideas?
Hoping one or two players can shake off the niggles though.
Yeah I am with you, Ward and Brown is not a good partnership. I think Lindsay is a good option as if I remember rightly from the past youth WC's he is a good passer of the ball which Ward and Brown are certainly not! I am still convinced that Clapham should be in the 'Nix, I think he is a tremendous player and he world add another dimension to the midfield albeit he won't be a hack like Lia or "how does my hair look" like Ward. Plus last time I saw him against Aus. he had a really f**k off beard which is awesome
I would suggest that injury replacement players we do bring in are probably not going to be renowned world beaters, given they will be offered short term deals. It's going to be a bit more of a gamble (paid off with Muscat, and hopefully Smith as well). And given for that match in Sydney last year we brought in Clapham and Lovemore, it might be these kind of guys that are on the radar.
Still not convinced that Clapham is good enough (we seem to have this discussion all the time), but if we bring him in for three or four games he gets a chance to prove me wrong. He can also play in that central midfield role which might be required if Lia is ruled out for a wee while.
I think there are issues around registering for clubs and what not, if he was to play 5 minutes off the bench for us it would then rule him out of Canterbury games for a while, so it would have to be worthwhile on his part.
Interesting to see how the injuries turn out in any case.