I’m not sure if it’s quite a selection headache just yet.
Aitor Karanka seems to have everything under control in regards to what he’s going to do with Scott Hogan, but I’m very much in the camp of ‘wait and see’ when it comes to how many times, and in what role, we’re going to see our new signing.
Last season when he played for us, he played as part of a two with Lukas Jutkiewicz up top, forming a rather formidable partnership that sadly drifted away in the latter stages of the season, but there’s still the potential that something could happen once again.
However, it seems as if things could be shaping up a little differently this season under Karanka, who has a preferred formation of 4-2-3-1, meaning that there’s only room for one of them, something he addressed when Hogan was announced the other day:
“I will have a lot more options, if we want to play direct to Jukey we can, if we are winning games and need to play transitions Scott is really quick and intelligent, if we want to keep possession we can have both of them in the box”
Are you happy to see Scott Hogan back?
Yes
No
I spoke a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about bringing in a new centre-forward that the club needed to bring in a backup player to supplement Jutkiewicz, and it seems as though that will be the role that Hogan will take on this season, on the bench for most games, starting some others and that works perfectly in my mind.
Someone who can take the burden off Jutkiewicz’s shoulders so that he doesn’t have to play every minute of every game once again for us.
What about you? What role do you see Hogan taking on this season for us?
Karanka talks about keeping possession – we had less than 40% against Brentford and I suspect similar against Swansea. That surely is inviting the opposition to score – if we face facts we were lucky in both games. Long way to go yet.