Speed Ponders His Options Ahead Of Coventry Visit.

29 October 2010 12:09
The ins and outs at Bramall Lane Sheffield United manager Gary Speed has to decide who he will field against Saturday's visitors to Bramall Lane, in form Coventry City.Speed has a few selection headaches to address, not least who he will play at left back.The loan period for Ritchie de Laet expired last Saturday and he returned to Manchester United, but the obvious choice Stephen Jordan still hasn't recovered from a hamstring injury so will probably miss out.Speed is keen to try to arrange an extension to the loan deal with the Belgian de Laet, but Sheffield United an Manchester United are still in discussions.Speed will probably choose between Mathew Lowton or Andrew Taylor in the problem full back position.Speed confirmed: "Stephen won't play. At least it doesn't look as if he will. I'm not expecting him to be involved. Who comes in there? Well there's Andy. Matty can play there too. There are a couple of options we've got but, by and large, we'll be selecting from the usual suspects.""We've been working on a couple of things, trying a few different things out (since the 2-0 defeat at Doncaster) so we might have a look at those. You'll just have to wait and see."Up front Speed may opt to play Kyle Bartley, who is recovering from a fractured cheek bone sustained against Nottingham Forest earlier in the season.Coventry City are fast earning a reputation as being a hard and physical side under the management of Aidy Boothroyd, but Speed doesn't have any doubts about the courage of his forward.Bartley is at The Blades on loan from Arsenal and Speed said, "Kyle is chomping at the bit to play. The lad is absolutely desperate to be involved and I wouldn't envisage any problems. He's such a brave kid that I know he'd be happy to stick his head in where it hurts if that's what was required. I've seen it in training."Bartley underwent surgery to repair the damage caused by the fracture and has been wearing a protective mask, similar to the one worn by Leon Best when he was at Coventry City.Speed thinks Bartley is suffering no ill effects from his injury, saying, "We've not engineered any situations in training for Kyle. We've not done any exercises to test whether he's happy to get stuck in again. What we have done is just let situations unfold as they would during a game and, let me tell you, there's nothing to worry about."Sheffield United are having an indifferent season and have slipped to 18th after being beaten by Yorkshire rivals Doncaster last week, while their opponents are on a good run and are up to sixth place following their 3-0 win over Barnsley on Saturday.Speed is aware his side will face a tough test against Coventry and he warned his players and their fans, "Coventry have got some big, strong lads but it would be wrong to dismiss them as 'just direct.'"They can play the game too. Someone like Lee Carsley doesn't have a career like he has had if he can't play.So to just dismiss them as being one dimensional would be a stupid thing to do. There's clearly much more to them than that. They're coming here on a good run but we have also got a big point to prove."

Source: FOOTYMAD