It seems clear from what Sam Allardyce wrote in his Evening Standard column that Mladen Petric isn’t yet fit enough to be considered for a place in the starting line-up at St Marys. It seems highly doubtful that he will even make the bench, but you never know. The other two dilemmas are whether Razvan Rat should make his Premier League debut and whether Ravel Morrison can break into the starting lineup. I think the jury is out on Rat, mainly because Joey O’Brien has done really well at left back, and if a player is playing well, why drop them? But Morrison is giving Allardyce a real selection problem. There are some who believe that the way to solve this problem is to play Kevin Nolan as a striker and bring in Morrison alongside Diame and Noble. It’s a thought, but I just can’t see Allardyce going for it. In the Readers Survey I asked for your views on whether Ravel Morrison should start at Southampton, and if so, who should make way for him. Here are the results…
1. Do you think Ravel Morrison should start against Southampton?
Yes 82%
No 18%
2. If you think Morrison should start, who should make way for him?
Diame 17%
Nolan 51%
Noble 32%
Well, that isn’t going to happen, is it? The only way Morrison will start is if Allardyce decides to play him on the right. This could happen if he thinks Vaz Te hasn’t proved himself worth a recall. Stranger things have happened. So the team above is the one I think is a possibility, if not a probability. It’s the team I would pick, apart from replacing Maiga with Vaz Te.
Unfortunately, due to some incredibly bad planning by LBC I will be on a plane to Glasgow at the time the match is taking place. I have three days at the Liberal Demcoract Party conference to look forward to. The only saving grace is that their head of media, Phil Reilly, is a Hammers fanatic.