It was a quiet day on the Premier League press conference front, with only six top-flight managers holding their pre-Gameweek 11 media gatherings.
That means we will have a bumper crop of 14 pressers on Friday, with all of the ‘big six’ managers and the likes of Brendan Rodgers, Nuno Espirito Santo and Eddie Howe hopefully bringing us some clear-cut injury updates.
As for Thursday, there were few headline-grabbing quotes from the six managers who talked to the press.
For Fantasy managers, the most pertinent comments from Ralph Hasenhuttl didn’t concern team news per se but rather the approach of his Saints side when they visit Manchester City on Saturday.
The Southampton boss said:
It’s another game of being as nasty as possible, giving them not so many chances. For our side, be a little bit more self-confident.
It’s not so easy or seldom possible to press them high, this is why we immediately dropped back and came back in shape after losing the ball. This is not our normal style.
Normally we want to stay in, keeping longer pressure on them, but they are so calm on the ball and have so much quality. It’s not so easy to press them high and they don’t really get upset about getting pressure.
Asked first about Cedric Soares (calf) and Moussa Djenepo (muscle), Hasenhuttl added:
They trained today the first time with the team, this is positive. It’s a little bit too early for the weekend, they start training today, it was only a light session. I think for the Everton game they are an option.
Sofiane [Boufal] had a little problem with his knee after the game, Redmond yesterday in the session had a tackle where he fell on his knee. But they’re both OK, I think they are both options for the weekend. Two players back, maybe for the bench is one option.
There may be a change between the posts for the Saints at the Etihad, with Hasenhuttl saying of Angus Gunn and Alex McCarthy:
Not an easy evening for Angus against Leicester. Alex made a good job on Tuesday, made a few good saves and with his body language in the goal, made a good performance. I haven’t decided yet what I’ll do.
Bernardo (knock) and Jose Izquierdo (knee) remain out for Brighton, who are otherwise injury-free going into Saturday’s game against Norwich.
When asked about the possibility of Leandro Trossard starting, Graham Potter said:
They were his first minutes since the end of August, so that’s the consideration: how much time he can play. The quality of Leandro is not in doubt. We have to just manage that situation the best we can.
You can see the influence that he had on the last 30 minutes of the [Everton] game, the game started to become a little bit more open, a little bit more stretched, and then his quality in the final third is really helpful for us.
Chris Wilder was frustratingly coy on Sheffield United’s injury news, saying only:
There’s a couple that we are hoping are going to be fit for the weekend. They’ll go through the process today and tomorrow, [to] give them as much time as possible.
Asked whether the in-form Lys Mousset is ready to play for 90 minutes after his benching in Gameweek 10, Wilder replied:
Possibly a little bit off. But when you look at our forwards, not many of them play 90 minutes. We’ve got a group of forwards that we can change.
I believe we made the right call last week but maybe if we’d had a week’s work with Lys, the games Saturday to Saturday, then I’d have been very, very tempted to start him at West Ham.
The Blades are up against Burnley this weekend, with the Clarets still sweating on the fitness of Chris Wood (hamstring).
Phil Bardsley (back) is a fresh doubt, too, with Sean Dyche saying:
Chris Wood’s touch and go, he’s making a good recovery but you always get those moments of decision: should we, shouldn’t we? We’ll speak to him over the next 24 hours.
Bardo’s got a tight back, so we’ll see how that settles down.
Johann [Berg Gudmundsson] is making good progress but is still going to be weeks, not days.
On West Ham’s injury news, Manuel Pellegrini said:
Jack [Wilshere] is with some small problem but he is not 100% fit. I think that for him it is a risk to try to come back before he has completely recovered from that.
Winston Reid played yesterday night with the under-23s. He played 65 minutes without any problem. We’ll see how he reacts. Now he will play another game, a complete game, and as soon as he can, he will start working with the first-team squad.
Antonio and Lukasz Fabianski are recovering from their surgeries. Antonio I think will be ready for after the international break. All the other players are fit.
Watford ruled Domingos Quina (groin) and Ismaila Sarr (leg) out of Saturday’s clash with Chelsea, while Etienne Capoue (back) is “not 100 per cent”.
Quique Sanchez Flores said of Tom Cleverley (heel), meanwhile:
He has a little problem with his heel. I think not too long. He is positive, he will come back soon.
Isaac Success has recovered from a groin injury, though, while Sanchez Flores said Troy Deeney (knee) would “probably” be ready for a return after the November international break.
Predicted line-ups and more detailed information will be found in the Team News tab, which is being refreshed over the coming 24 hours.
We’ll have our regular early-evening round-up of Friday’s press conferences tomorrow, along with a video/podcast summary of Thursday and Friday’s breaking injury news.
