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Diarra out till December

That's a really big miss, hard to replace his athleticism and power. Big opportunity for Le Fee, Rigg, Geertruda or Dan Neil to stake a claim as a regular starter in midfield.
 

Nedved said:
I hope you're right, it works well for us if that's the case, but given it's a big tournament that they surely have an eye on doing well in, and the knockouts aren't until early Jan, I wonder if they'll take the risk and take him anyway, even without being match fit.

Not unusual in big tournaments for teams to nurse a player through group stages.

(different question, but who gets the final say on if he's fit or not? If our docs say he's not for, does that overrule Senegal, or could they call him up even if his leg is hanging off?)
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Doesn’t it become a he said she said
If they can prove he’s match fit there’s not much we can do and there are FIFA sanctions on clubs who refuse to release players for internationals as Iunderstand
 
Mowgli said:
Its a massive blow, let's not downplay it. The manager clearly prefers Le Fee on the left, which leaves an 18 year old kid and Dan Neil who loads on this forum thought wasn't good enough last season in the championship.

For 180 seconds
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Can see him moving one of the new lads there gurrrrrrrrtruda fits the bill. It’s a huge blow though but let’s not forget we should’ve beaten villa with him missing and probably would have had we had the full 11 on the pitch.
 
Hulkster said:
Nothing against any of the potential replacements but we paid £30m for this lad for a reason - this is a big blow.
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Massive. Our record signing managed 4 games before needing surgery and an extended spell on the sidelines. It’s a sickener.

We have good players though. We might end up changing the system to a back 5, with one of the 3 CB’s stepping into midfield, as we saw Ballard do on Sunday.

Or we play Rigg in the Diarra role (which is essentially the Rigg role from last season, the most advanced of the 3 midfielders).

Or we bring ELF into central midfield in the Diarra role and use Adingra/Mundle wide left.

Lots of options.
 
Mowgli said:
But hes clearly a downgrade on what's currently playing. Hence why hes had 180 seconds of action.
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No team has ever been able to put out their first 11 in every game, players get injured and get suspended and what have you.

Would I rather play Diarra? Obviously. But the fact that our replacements for him are players who were among the first names on the teamsheet last year is a much better position that if our replacements were still the likes of Poveda or Browne.

Adingra is a fine winger if we want to move Enzo inside and Rigg and Neil were our crown jewels last year. I think we'll still pick up points and wins without him.
 
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