Xabi Alonso has kept his starting lineups quite consistent, even between Premier League games and the previous round of this competition, but there’s an expectation that he will rotate a bit more today (just like Leeds United). After all, the League Cup offers the only obvious chance to do so and while our squad isn’t as huge as in years past, there are still plenty of proverbial mouths to feed with some delicious derby minutes.
For the WAGHN Community, the players first in line for said minutes should
be Estêvão, Valentín Barco, Pep Chavarría, and Danny Welbeck, with the likes of Levi Colwill (who was dropped over the weekend), Geovany Quenda, and Jamie Gittens also garnering a majority vote. Players who have seen a bit more action than we maybe had expected but are also preferred to start today include Josh Acheampong and Malo Gusto — and we especially love to see the former on the pitch. One of our own!
So that’s nine, plus goalkeeper Mike Penders who should be getting this game as the backup to Emi Martínez. That leaves one spot for Roméo Lavia, who’s the next highest vote-getter.
Cobbling that all together:
3-4-3 / 3-4-2-1 (70%)
Penders (91%) | Chavarría (88%), Colwill (79%), Acheampong (72%) | Gusto (65%), Barco (97%), Lavia (48%), Quenda (51%) | Gittens (49%), Welbeck (84%), Estêvão (96%)
That might do.
Reggie Watson and Aarón Anselmino both got 28% of the vote, which was a decent showing but not quite good enough to start. Most everybody else also finished in the double-digits, with Maxence Lacroix (43%) and Jorrel Hato (37%) leading the way for the bench options.
