Murillo, Worrall, Omobamidele competing for two shirts. Keep hearing Nuno likes a small squad, the consequence is going to be that, sometimes, he's going to have to pick from limited options.

"Need" is too strong a word, but Worrall has looked short of the standard and O is perhaps not ready, judging by his appearances.

Worrall has sometimes looked good enough and sometimes not (albeit usually his better appearances have been in a 3, i think). Another centre half would be useful but spending £5m to cover, potentially, a two game problem is not going to improve our FFP issues.

The Mirror is saying that Nuno has sanctioned the sale of Worrall with a replacement expected. I suppose if we have to sell first that could complicate things, but at the moment we only seem to have Murillo as an acceptable centre half going into the games that clash with Afcon.

Afcon.

I think we lose Aurier, Aina, Boly, Niakhate, Kouyate and Sangare.

Wile E is called up for Senegal.

I do wonder if we'll see Yates at CB a few more times (Nuno converted Coady from DM to an England centre-back).

prayforruss

I think he's a bit short to play centre half.

What does the whole big/small squad thing mean? Doesn't almost everyone have the same size squad, 25 plus a few U21s?

We have more than most outside of the squad due to hiring strategy, but that's our owners way isn't it?

So when Nuno likes a small squad, does that mean eg 20 rather than 25 registered? Or he doesn't like all the accumulated extras, in which case is there any manager who does? Or something else?

I heard he only likes players who are under 6 foot, some kind of inferiority complex.

www.premierleague.com/news/3681595

Villa have 23 players registered over 21, Brighton 20, Chelsea 20, Palace 22, Liverpool 22, Man City 20.

Probably most of them are added to by under 21s but Murillo and Elanga are key members of our first team and we still have another 22 outfield players over 21.

If we got rid of Aurier, Tavares, Worrall, Mckenna, Felipe and Kouyate and signed a couple of central defenders and two wingers, we'd have 20 outfield over 21s (assuming three keepers) and still be fine.

In unsurprising news: www.nottinghamforest.co.uk/news/2024/january/03/santos-recalled-by-chelsea/?fbclid=IwAR1KuIA8Ovwwuw-3dCoN0UlEYT3xcvo0cB-f8B5hsgLirpZFAZPOGGuYeuY

Santos goes back to Chelsea.

I'm sure he will go straight into their first team given the outcry that he wasn't featuring for us.