Sheffield Wednesday vs Argyle – preview

By: Jim | October 27th, 2008

There’s currently much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the Argyle faithful, following Saturday’s dismal performance at home to Ipswich. A combination of comedy defending and lacklustre movement in the midfield, aided by a refereeing performance of startling incompetence has brought all the doom-merchants out of the woodwork, along with the vicious scapegoaters. Luke Summerfield was nowhere near being the worst Argyle player on the pitch on Saturday – step forward Marcel Seip and Karl Duguid – but to hear some fans talk, you would think he was single-handedly responsible not only for Saturday’s defeat, but the credit crunch, the Iraq War and the death of Diana as well. Luke has won most of the midfield battles he’s fought this season – and if you look at the players he’s been up against, Guy Moussi, Ben Watson, O’Toole and Williamson of Watford to name just a handful, that’s no mean achievement.

Having said that, though, there’s a case for resting him tomorrow. Well, to be honest, on the basis of Saturday, there’s a case to be made for resting most of the team. Mat Doumbe’s ankle looks set to continue to keep him out, so David McNamee will continue at right back, despite not having impressed on Saturday. Steve MacLean’s cameo sub appearance on Saturday did him a lot of good and he may well replace Fallon in attack; Nicolas Marin should also start at the expense of Jamie Mackie. The biggest dilemma is at the back: Seip and Cathcart’s partnership has been at the heart of Argyle’s recent success and it would be foolish, in my view, to break it up on the basis of one bad game. Chris Barker, on the other hand, has been struggling for a while now and Jim Paterson has never let Argyle down at LB. Wednesday are unbeaten at home and although they’ve come off the back of two straight defeats – at Barnsley and Birmingham – are likely to offer a stern test. Some extra competitiveness in central midfield, perhaps in the guise of a rehabilitated Walton, might well be appropriate. So imagine a reshuffled team looking like:

Larrieu

McNamee
Seip
Cathcart
Paterson

Marin
Walton
Duguid
Clark

MacLean
Gallagher
——————–
Barker
Timar
Summerfield
Fallon
Mackie

Wednesday will find out tomorrow if on-loan midfielder Jimmy Smith’s red card has been rescinded.
Richard Hinds and Marcus Tudgay are both definitely out, while question marks apparently sit over the fitness of Spurr, Beevers, Wood, O’Connor, Simek and Akpo Sodje. Expect former Argyle favourites (wink) Leon Clarke and Peter Gilbert to feature. Offer me a point now, and I’ll gladly accept it.