Barkley needs to start. He won’t get his match fitness up sitting on the bench, and we really can’t pass on a player of his quality if he’s able to start.
I would be personally, I just didn’t imagine us going in for a DM. As has been said, we’re probably looking at expanding the quality within the whole squad.
Could be he’ll be playing alongside McGinn with Luiz pushing up to number 10. We know he has the work rate and the ability to play that position. Not saying that’s the case, just a thought.
The subs were too late. But Smith did well tonight, second half in particular. We just just gave Utd their hardest game of their season and they needed a dodgy penalty to beat us. We deserved a draw.
I’d still take him over Hause, just for the better distribution. Against Chelsea when he was playing Mings’ position on the left, his balls forward were picked off too easy.
Smith said after the Chelsea game that he prefers to pick on form over fresh legs “all day”, so I can’t see ElGhazi being dropped anyway. Either Barkley starts on the bench or Traoré is dropped.
Considering most of them looked tired, and we played for a long period with 10 men just a few days ago, and we could have won it, that was a decent point.
I’m a massive fan of his, and I’ve no complaints about anything this season other than we sometimes leave our subs too late. I just think that extra 10 minutes or so can make a difference.