Matty Cash

[TheTimVilla]

Dortmund fans I know weren't that sorry to see Malen go, especially at that price. Mainly because he never tracked back. On the other hand, they loved Sancho, so what do they know?!

[RamboandBruno]

Konsa surely?

Probably but two changes for the sake of one again. Mings is going to have to play at LCB as that clogger Beto will bully the rest of them. Setup for Grealish to have a field day on that side with Kamara out too.

Konsa is, despite other flaws, one of the best defenders in Europe against players running at him, at one point he went something like 30 games in a row without letting anyone get round him. He's a perfect option to go against Grealish.

Does that stat take into account when we used play a very high offside line? Would his idiotic red card v Newcastle have even counted towards it? The game is full of these meaningless stats.

From what I've seen Grealish won't be standing out on the left sideline like he did v Man City. It's likely we will dominate the ball for starters but he will step off the left flank on their counters and target that RB/RCB/RCM space. Probably first time our trio will have played together too. My fear is whoever we have RB gets spooked early on, caught under a high ball (Konsa special) or gets a yellow, and they tuck in far too narrow afterwards. We can't afford to give Grealish time to get turned on the ball and run with it.

Then there's the other problem, when we have the ball. If you thought the Cash chop was bad, stick one of Konsa or Lindelof out there and maybe a clueless Malen in front of them and we might aswell avoid the right side completely. A pity Garcia isn't fully fit as often the best way to limit someone like Grealish is just to keep the ball away from him. Keep him running backwards.

Your judging Malen as clueless after what about three starts, one of which against Forest at home, he was excellent.
We’ve all got our biases, but you’ve had a massive grudge against Konsa since at least the beginning of last season and it permeates most of any analysis you provide.

Malen was clueless in his last couple of appearances on the right. Not just his fault, the team itself has been a mess, but he has to show something both in and out of possession.

Konsa has been in the main piss poor for 12 months. The metric mikes keep saying wait until he's back next to Mings. Except he's back next to Mings and as bad as ever. As much as he, and his supporters on here, like to blame everybody else for his failings the excuses ran out a long time ago.

Maybe a note to self…the weekly scoring system you inflict on us, doesn’t equate to fact.

Konsa is generally a really good defender who like most players, has the odd dodgy game.