**Lucas Paqueta is suspended vs Bournemouth, and Nuno Espirito Santo should bring in Soungoutou Magassa to replace the Brazilian playmaker.**
Unsurprisingly, Lucas Paqueta has picked up a one match suspension after receiving five yellow cards in the Premier League. In fact, I’m surprised it took him this long, it feels like he gets booked every game. But the fact is he has picked up five yellows now and he will miss our trip to Bournemouth.
With two goals off the bench in his last two, the most obvious replacement for Paqueta would be Tomas Soucek. He probably does deserve to start the match, however, me personally, I would keep him in the substitute role he’s been doing so well in.
Soucek has been replacing Callum Wilson on around 60/70 minutes when the 33-year-old is tiring. He comes on and plays like a hybrid midfield-striker role. He is very effective because of his height, aerial prowess and hard-work. Not only that, he’s one of our only players that can make a game-changing impact off the bench and we’ve seen that. Niclas Fullkrug will be back from injury to face Bournemouth, but I just don’t see him being able to change a game.
Despite Bournemouth’s heavy defeat to in-form Aston Villa this weekend, a visit to the Vitality to face Andoni Iraola’s cherries is one of the most difficult tasks in the Premier League at the moment. We may need to be slightly more defensively solid, so bringing in Soungoutou Magassa could be the way to go.
Not only will playing Magassa alongside Potts make us a lot more solid in midfield, it will also allow Mateus Fernandes to express himself a bit more in attack as he’ll have have less defensive responsibility behind him. Playing a midfield three of two 22-year-old’s and a 21-year-old could be a risk, but they’re more than good and composed enough to make it work.