This is a troublesome morning. It’s one of those mornings for Fantasy managers when you know you’re on the edge of making a decision that could make or break the day – one that, if it falls badly, will curse the weekend and hand you the task of picking yourself up off the floor for the next Gameweek.
Leighton Baines is a doubt and it’s a situation that causing me no end of consternation. With two transfers tucked under my arm, this Gameweek should have been in hand. However, hesitancy on Wednesday night (see the ScoutCast) deprived me of my decided transfers and meant that, with Baines a doubt, I’ve now dug myself into a scouser-shaped hole.
This morning’s press fail to provide answers. If anything, they confirm the worst. Only the Guardian finds a tentative spot for Baines in their Everton lineup at City, with the The Sun and The Independent drafting in Bryan Oviedo at left-back, while the rest opt for Sylvain Distin against his former club. In short then, the press have little hope that Baines will turn up at City.
There’s an obvious replacement and, in many ways, it’s a decision that requires little consideration. Jose Enrique is set to play another game pushed up in the final third to support Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling and he faces Southampton – a fixture that offers goals for Brendan Rodgers’ side and maybe even a clean sheet. When you look at Liverpool’s fixtures compared to Everton’s there’s even a case to extend Enrique’s stay over Baines for the coming weeks. Liverpool have three home games in four and, if Enrique can maintain his advanced starting role, he should rival even Baines for attacking threat.
The trouble, of course, is that Baines is a favourite player of mine – a designated season keeper who may have disappointed in recent weeks but who has shown potential almost every match to deliver strong attacking returns. Losing him now is a tough decision when, in the back of my mind, I just know that there will likely be obstacles to getting him back in a hurry.
At least there seems to be little concern over Enrique’s credentials. All the press lineups name him safely nestled next to Suarez in the Liverpool attacking trio; Andre Wisdom makes his return in The Sun, The Guardian and The Telegraph, with Stewart Downing making way. In our other three papers, it’s “as you were” for Liverpool, with Downing retaining his start at left-back at Wisdom’s expense on the bench.
Today’s other decisions are also calmed by the press lineups – Tevez is included in all but the Daily Mail’s prediction, Theo Walcott is listed in every one of our morning papers for Arsenal.
It’s left to Baines to cast a cloud over my morning, then. To leave me facing the prospect of losing one of my darlings and approach the Gameweek with three Liverpool attackers. How did it possibly come to this?
