LC Southampton @home Tuesday 23td Sept 8pm

[BigChief]

Surely we're going to play Isak here for match practice? He can't be trundling off to awards when there's work to be done.

[memzey]

There are some big risks to playing Isak in this one. It's not a decision I'd take lightly.

[rudedog]

There are some big risks to playing Isak in this one. It's not a decision I'd take lightly.

He needs game time, would be daft not to use this to build his match fitness

[memzey]

Yeah but he might play and get injured or, even worse, play with a second string line-up and have a stinker. Imagine the pressure and question marks if that were to happen. We saw something similar with Chiesa last season and, even with his minimal fee, I don't think that helped him at all.

If he's fit enough I'd start Danns and bring Isak off the bench for the last 30 or so.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Yeah but he might play and get injured or, even worse, play with a second string line-up and have a stinker. Imagine the pressure and question marks if that were to happen. We saw something similar with Chiesa last season and, even with his minimal fee, I don't think that helped him at all.

If he's fit enough I'd start Danns and bring Isak off the bench for the last 30 or so.

Same risk will apply to whatever games we use to try and give him minutes in though.


I would start him against Southampton and then take him off after 60 minutes or so and bring Ekitike on.

Then start Ekitike against Palace and bring Isak on for the final 20 to 25 mins.

[rudedog]

Yeah but he might play and get injured or, even worse, play with a second string line-up and have a stinker. Imagine the pressure and question marks if that were to happen. We saw something similar with Chiesa last season and, even with his minimal fee, I don't think that helped him at all.

If he's fit enough I'd start Danns and bring Isak off the bench for the last 30 or so.

That’s illogical IMO, if he has a stinker against the third bottom team in the championship then he’s likely not going to fare any better against quality opponents. Don’t think you can make comparisons to Chiesa and Isak, completely different circumstances.

He desperately needs match fitness and this is a good opportunity for that.

[Sus]

That’s illogical IMO, if he has a stinker against the third bottom team in the championship then he’s likely not going to fare any better against quality opponents. Don’t think you can make comparisons to Chiesa and Isak, completely different circumstances.

He desperately needs match fitness and this is a good opportunity for that.

Don't think it's illogical, I think the argument is that he will likely to play worse given the quality of players around him, which is definitely possible and probably what we saw last season with Chiesa and Elliott

Having said that, I think it's more important to get him minutes as quickly as possible and think this is a great low risk (trophies wise) opportunity to get 60 minutes into his legs

[memzey]

That might make sense.

My reticence, from an injury perspective, is that the game is relatively unimportant and we shouldn't be reliant on him to win it anyway. Isak getting a setback in such a game would be the kind of thing many would look back on, with 20:20 hindsight, and ask "why did we start him anyway"?

Another risk is that these second string line-ups tend to be disjointed at best and not conducive to players seeking to stake a claim for the first team. If he plays tomorrow I'm not expecting any kind of performance from him.

[Mark79]

That might make sense.

My reticence, from an injury perspective, is that the game is relatively unimportant and we shouldn't be reliant on him to win it anyway. Isak getting a setback in such a game would be the kind of thing many would look back on, with 20:20 hindsight, and ask "why did we start him anyway"?

Another risk is that these second string line-ups tend to be disjointed at best and not conducive to players seeking to stake a claim for the first team. If he plays tomorrow I'm not expecting any kind of performance from him.

Just look at as like a pre-season game for him. He needs to build up match fitness, performance level is secondary at the minute.

As long as there’s no pre-existing injury risks to playing him, then there’s no need to be cautious of injury. We can’t second guess something happening to him on the pitch, that could happen in any game.

[Sus]

That might make sense.

My reticence, from an injury perspective, is that the game is relatively unimportant and we shouldn't be reliant on him to win it anyway. Isak getting a setback in such a game would be the kind of thing many would look back on, with 20:20 hindsight, and ask "why did we start him anyway"?

Another risk is that these second string line-ups tend to be disjointed at best and not conducive to players seeking to stake a claim for the first team. If he plays tomorrow I'm not expecting any kind of performance from him.

I think the risk of injury is there in every game, to be fair. And I 100% agree on your last line - this is all about getting minutes in his legs, in my view

[SB]

Just look at as like a pre-season game for him. He needs to build up match fitness, performance level is secondary at the minute.

As long as there’s no pre-existing injury risks to playing him, then there’s no need to be cautious of injury. We can’t second guess something happening to him on the pitch, that could happen in any game.

[rudedog]

Don't think it's illogical, I think the argument is that he will likely to play worse given the quality of players around him, which is definitely possible and probably what we saw last season with Chiesa and Elliott

Having said that, I think it's more important to get him minutes as quickly as possible and think this is a great low risk (trophies wise) opportunity to get 60 minutes into his legs

It’s illogical in the sense that he won’t improve unless he gets match fit. Not playing him for fear of him not having a good game shouldn’t be a consideration as it’s a low priority game for us.

[Norbs]

I hope we second string the **** out of this competition.

Even if we go all the way to the final.

Hopefully they're not up to it and we bow out at the first opportunity

[memzey]

I hope we go deep, all the way, ideally. We have a large squad with players that need games for form and morale. Being dumped out in the first couple of rounds would be suboptimal to say the least.

Having said that, I'm still sketchy on Isak starting this one. It feels like an unnecessary risk to be taking. Start someone else and bring him on in the second half. What's the rush to get him game time anyway? We have him on a 6 year contract not 6 weeks. Ekitike is playing well and we are top of the league. Gently does it until he's fully up to speed and then unleash the prick on all and sundry.

[rudedog]

We are just going round in circles, we’ll find out tomorrow what Slot thinks and whether any of your concerns are justified. I hope he plays Isak and Wirtz together so they can build on their understanding