As the Southampton game looms large, Slaven Bilic must be scratching his head wondering what on earth he does about a defence which has shipped 11 goals in the last three Premier League games. The trouble is, he’s fast running out of options.
wonder if there is a temptation to shore things up by reintroducing a sweeper – a system has has deployed before. This would mean plonking either Havard Nordtveit or Reece Oxford in front of the back four. Oh how he must rue selling James Tomkins. Of course this means we’d have to play with one fewer attacking player, but given we don’t see to have a striker capable of scoring, perhaps it’s best to leave that to Antonio, Lanzini and Payet.
We will have to play the next match or two without an established left back, given the injury to Masuaku. I imagine Byram or Arbeloa will cover that position, although Ogbonna has been known to play there in the past.
So I see Sunday as looking something like this…
Adrian
Ogbonna
Reid
Byram
Arbeloa
Nordtveit
Noble
Kouyate
Antonio
Zaza
Payet