Nottingham Forest - Cardiff City

[Paplane]

Don't think Ioannou will play, he wants out.

Yeah there seems to be a fair bit of rumour surrounding his future.

I think there was a German club competing for his signature when we signed him in the Summer...

To be honest having Ribeiro, Ioannou, Bong as well as Blackett is overkill so we need to offload at least one of them.

Brought in when the club thought they would be jettisoning Ribeiro out and Bong was already bombed. Darikwa I haven't a clue about him and Blackett I suspect was brought in to play 2nd fiddle behind Ioannou. Ioannou seems to be the only player who we might be able to turn around quickly and recover a fee for. If CH is content with Bong as a back-up then, which he seems to be, then it makes sense to move Ioannou on. It's a shame because I thought he had something about him.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Personally I would keep Ioannou and I hope we do but it looks like he'll slip away, hope not.

I think Ribeiro is out of contract in the summer and I can't see him being offered a new one. In fact I would have Ioannou in the team ahead of Ribeiro now.

[ozzyten10]

So would I after Saturday...Ioannou has done well in my eyes and didn’t deserve to be dropped when he did...

[Paplane]

So would I after Saturday...Ioannou has done well in my eyes and didn’t deserve to be dropped when he did...

He was excluded because he was suspended, wasn't he? Ribeiro came back into the fold as a result and has kept the shirt.

I agree about Saturday though. Ribeiro had one of his poorer games. If Bong, Ioannou or Blackett come in against Cardiff and do well, then he might've lost his place for a while.

[ThePromisedLand]

Why would he be suspended?

Don’t thinks that’s right?

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

He got sent off at Luton.

[Username]

He got sent off? Against Luton I think.

So dropping him wasn’t optional.

Ribeiro looks knackered to me, he had a bad game a few weeks back. I think he is paying the price for missing out earlier on in the season

[ThePromisedLand]

That was sometime ago.

There’s been plenty of time / opportunity for CH to reinstate him if he thought it appropriate.

[Paplane]

That was sometime ago.

There’s been plenty of time / opportunity for CH to reinstate him if he thought it appropriate.

Yes but it's clear that CH doesn't like messing around with the back 4. And I think Ribeiro has been pretty decent anyway so why would he drop him?

[Paplane]

We're not going to win the FA Cup this year. So can anyone see any advantage, other than giving game time to reserves, for going on a cup run this year? If we beat Cardiff reserves on Saturday, what will the prize be, a trip to Covid ridden London to be thrashed again by Chelsea or Arsenal U23's, a trip up to Chorley to get clogged to death or another trek up to Preston to play a game which both teams actually want to lose?

[ThePromisedLand]

For me - 11 changes.

Use the next 10 days or so for the first choice X1 to prepare for a much more important game - against Millwall.

I can see most teams - in the current climate - making wholesale changes.

[wassy04]

Assuming its still on, it may well depend on who's available. EFL mandatory covid testing is returning and given this hasn't been done for a while its likely to be carnage across the EFL.