Ben McKevitt says…
The return of Diarra and Talbi is something that I’ve been looking forward to and something that’s brought forth the opportunity for some interesting discussions.
I think Diarra might be the more difficult problem to solve as his ill-timed injury back in September gave Enzo Le Fée a prolonged stint in the team, which he’s fully capitalised upon.
Le Fée has been one of our best players this season.
He does brilliantly as the creative outlet for the forwards whilst still doing the dirty work all across
the pitch and has become almost undroppable due to this. However, Diarra is our record signing and a very talented footballer, so I find it hard to believe that the club won’t look to get him back into the team.
The inconvenient timing of AFCON correlated with Diarra’s return from injury, which might’ve actually worked out for us. He played regularly during the tournament, so hopefully we won’t have to spend too long getting him up to speed as you normally would for a player recovering from a long-term injury that required surgery.
Also, both Le Fée and Habib have played in different positions this season.
Le Fée played multiple games on the left wing but wasn’t as impactful as he is in his preferred central role. Diarra featured on the right wing against Brighton, but it wasn’t established if that was a “square peg in a round hole” situation to get him some game time, or genuinely a position he could play in for us.
All that being said, we know how Régis Le Bris loves his connections and I think Diarra might have to ride the bench — at least temporarily — whilst he re-integrates into the squad. If this is the case, what a great option he is to have on the bench as his explosiveness and power could cause some real problems against tired legs.
Talbi’s situation is slightly different.
He only featured in one game for Morocco, only playing for sixteen minutes. Could the lack of game time have affected his match fitness? Five weeks without genuine match play is a long time in professional football.
Unlike Diarra and Le Fée’s situation, no one player has taken Talbi’s position and made it their own.
Simon Adingra, Chris Rigg, Romaine Mundle and Eliezer Mayenda have been the most-used wide players during AFCON, with some of them not using this opportunity as well as others. For me, Mayenda did the best, as he worked his socks off whenever he was on the pitch and was always a threat going forward.
It should also be taken into account the tactical tweaks that Le Bris has imposed recently. This slanted 4-4-2 has been quite successful and in this formation, Trai Hume has been playing on the right side of midfield, so this new formation might be another barrier to Talbi getting back into the starting eleven.
In my opinion, it’s a similar situation to Diarra, but less controversial. Talbi will be on the bench and (depending on his match fitness) be one of the first subs Le Bris turns to when looking for a game-changing impact.
Whatever happens with these two lads, I’m glad to have them back and I hope they can help us throughout the remainder of the season.
Ciaran McKenna says…
Perhaps counterintuitively, I see Diarra as more of a priority to bring back into the side.
I think it’s more difficult to think critically of the team and setup coming fresh off a well-earned win against Crystal Palace, but there’s been a systemic issue throughout much of the season with linking the midfield and attack.
To me, Diarra seems like the missing piece of that puzzle, and his recruitment was prioritised for that reason during the summer.
He has the exact profile we’ve lacked on the right side of Régis Le Bris’ typical 4-3-3 midfield, and we’ve missed his direct running, — whether that’s on the ball driving and us up the pitch or off the ball creating space for others.
The question, of course, concerns who to drop.
I don’t think it’s any secret that in general, our wingers have not been particularly effective or impressive since Bertrand Traoré and Talbi left for AFCON, and that would be the obvious target for me. We played Trai Hume in a “floating” right wing role against Palace to good effect, so I’d be happy to leave Romaine Mundle out and fill the space on the left with Enzo Le Fée.
That leaves Diarra to come back into his favoured role in midfield while allowing us to get what I see to be our strongest general side on the pitch (in Traoré’s absence).
Moving Le Fée wide could prove to be a punishing sacrifice as we could lose some of his creative qualities in effective areas, but I think it could pay off. It’s something I’d like to watch closely if it happens as it may require some tinkering.
I’m sure Le Bris has something up his sleeve, whatever the outcome!
John Wilson says…
I think it’s slightly counterproductive to assume that there’s a “best eleven”.
It’s steeped in our history and football conversations about who’s going to start a game or who should be dropped, but we have a very good squad at the moment — some would argue perhaps the best squad we’ve ever had — and if we happened to get into Europe, our squad is nowhere near deep or big enough and as things stand, we wouldn’t be able to cope with two games a week for very long at the highest level.
I can see a scenario where Talbi and Diarra are in a starting eleven, but it would only be if Régis Le Bris thought that particular formation worked for that particular game or to rest players and provide cover for injuries, suspensions or dips in form — which is what a big squad is needed for.
That said, neither player had too much football at AFCON.
It was an ideal situation for Diarra to get up to speed and minutes in his legs, and whilst he’s much closer to being able to come into the team, he needs to be used as a substitute for the last fifteen to twenty minutes for two or three games.
Almost the opposite happened to Talbi, as he was match fit but didn’t see many minutes at all during the tournament, so he’ll have to be introduced a half a game at a time for a game or two.
They’re both valuable members of the squad and to be totally honest, I’ve forgotten quite how well Diarra performed before his injury, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing him back in action again, but to reiterate: there are possibly only five or six players whose names are guaranteed to be on the teamsheet.
Malc Dugdale says…
There’s an old adage: “If it ain’t broke, you don’t fix it” — and that’s applicable here.
These two lads are great to have back but Régis Le Bris will not rush them or force them back into a successful team. Instead, I think he’ll give them both minutes against West Ham and Burnley, and will maybe use them more where their talents add to our chances of success, but he won’t upset a very steady apple cart with any rash changes.
Yes, we need the pace and go-forward ability of Talbi with Simon Adingra and Romaine Mundle not really excelling, but we can reintroduce that in a controlled manner.
Getting Diarra back probably causes more positive headaches for the boss, as the excellent midfield of Enzo Le Fée, Granit Xhaka and Noah Sadiki may need to accommodate our record signing when his traits can aid us best.
His running in behind the strikers will create havoc and will lead to more goals — which is what we need — but these next two games are a potential test bed for these boys, and I think that’s how Le Bris will use them.
The good thing is this team isn’t just eleven good men — it’s almost squad-sized. They all seem to be happy to compete with each other and to fight for the starting shirt, and that’s a massive breath of fresh air compared to so-called Sunderland teams during the past decade or more.
I’d guess at maybe half an hour each against the Hammers and maybe a bit more versus Burnley, and after that, we throw them full pelt at Arsenal and Liverpool if that helps us.
I can’t wait to see how it pans out. We’re just so lucky to have them both coming back and I’m very excited for the games to come.
