I think this is pretty much the definition of ‘shoehorning someone in’.
However, given the makeup of the squad and the team, it’s something that may have to happen in order to fit everyone in.
As a report from Football Insider yesterday detailed, QPR are very close to signing Tottenham winger Jack Clarke on loan for the rest of the season. One of the caveats in the deal is that the North London side have made it abundantly clear that they expect Clarke to get regular game time, something that he didn’t get at Elland Road in the early stages of the campaign.
I’ve been saying over the last couple of days, that it’s going to be hard for Clarke to find game time without dislodging the likes of Bright Osayi-Samuel or Eberechi Eze from the first-team, and I’ve been racking my brains to try and find a way for them to all be able to fit into the team. One of which included selling Eze entirely so that he’s not a problem in this equation.
However, there might be one way for us to be able to keep both of them in the same team.
If you take a look at Eze throughout his career, he has mainly played as a central attacking midfielder, and it’s only really this season that he has found himself playing more and more on the wing, so if Mark Warburton wants to keep with the 4-2-3-1 formation that he has used most this season then you could, in theory, have a midfield three of Osayi-Samuel – Eze – Clarke for the rest of the season.
And as a result of that, you’d be able to move Ilias Chair into the defensive two in the 4-2-3-1, and allow him to start dictating play from deep rather than further forward. It might all seem a little bit complicated with a lot of moving parts, but that’s sometimes the risk you have to take when you bring in someone that you’ve already got plenty of.
Will bringing in Clarke force us to change things drastically?
Yes
No
Let’s just see what happens in the summer when we’ll have to readdress this all again with Clarke’s loan expiring.
