A midfield to out fox the foxes

International tedium over, it’s time to turn our attention back to the Premier League and there may be selection dilemmas all over the pitch for Tim Sherwood (a sign of improving squad depth as I wrote before). But this post is about just the midfield.

Sherwood confirmed today doubts over Grealish, Gana and Traoré for the game on Sunday and I’m sure supporters will agree, this is a big blow to the midfield, so let’s look at the options.

What are the certainties? I am fairly sure that Sanchez and Westwood will keep their places, for consistency as much as anything else and I’m assuming the injury doubts won’t start. Given that, these are my options for Sunday:

Option One: 4-3-3

Sherwood reverts to his early season formation and uses a midfield trio of Sanchez, Westwood and Veretout with Gabby or Ayew, Gestede and Sinclair up front.

Option Two: 4 4 2

Sherwood keeps the diamond and puts Sanchez at the base, Westwood and Veretout either side and let’s Carles Gil take the number 10 role. Sinclair and Gestede take the two attacking spots.

My heart says I hope option two gets a run out, my head says Sherwood will go with option one. I think we look more of a threat in the diamond and I’m not convinced we have three attackers worthy of a starting berth on current form for a 4-3-3. One other shout, will Sherwood be impressed by Hutton’s form for Scotland and push Bacuna back into midfield? Maybe. Wouldn’t be my first choice but Bacuna is clearly a favourite of Sherwood.

Either way, with those injuries, it will be a good indicator which players Sherwood is putting his trust in this season with some of his regular starters out. Now let’s go fox hunting.