| Baggies team news 23:37 - Aug 27 with 3172 views | jackonicko |
Alan Irvine appears to rule out including their 2 new signings in the squad for Saturday, as they're not match ready. Lescott also out.
Have to say these looked decent signings on paper, so quite pleased to see they might be out of the running for our game.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-brom-new-trio-
Alan Irvine has ruled out recent signings Silvestre Varela and Georgios Samaras from West Bromwich Albion’s trip to Swansea, claiming both players are still some way from match fitness.
The Baggies boss did not include the duo in Tuesday night’s Capital One Cup game against Oxford.
And the Scot revealed that neither player would make it for the game in south Wales.
He expects the Portugal winger Varela, who last week signed on loan from Porto, and ex-Celtic forward Samaras to not be fully ready until after the international break.
Irvine claimes they, along with Joleon Lescott, will need to undergo mini ‘pre-seasons’.
Lescott has been out of action since damaging his knee in a friendly against Nottingham Forest - that, in itself, was a delayed return to first-team football following a calf problem.
He has resumed initial training but isn’t ready for first-team action.
Irvine expects the players to be not be available until next month’s game against Everton, at the very earliest.
He said: “He (Varela) won’t play any part on Saturday; he’s not fit.
“He’s going to need the international break to have a mini pre-season.
“Neither Samaras or Lescott will be fit for the weekend.
“The fact is none of them have had a pre-season.
“You saw on Tuesday how difficult it is for players who have not had a pre-season.
“It’s extremely demanding and I’ve got to be mindful of that when I’m assessing individual performances.
“We’ve got too many players who haven’t been able to do the work that we would want them to do.
“That’s no fault of theirs, it’s just the circumstances.”
Irvine named seven players who were starting games for the first time this season.
Of those seven, five completed the full 120 minutes, with Chris Baird being replaced by Cristian Gamboa during half-time of extra-time.
Speaking about the fall-out from Tuesday’s game - a result and, more so, performance which drew criticism from some quarters - Irvine continued: “That won’t be the team that plays on Saturday.
“It’s a funny one because a lot of our players who needed football will have got an extra benefit from playing for 120 minutes — and it wasn’t in the plan.
“It’s a strange positive out of a negative.
“I think they’ll be better for it once they recover.
“There will be some tired people in training and we’ll try and look after everybody and get ready for the game against Swansea, because we’re going to have to work hard there.” |  | | |  |
| Baggies team news on 07:04 - Aug 28 with 2968 views | MattG |
Don't really know anything about the winger, Varela, so can't comment on him but I'm not sure Samaras is really a massive upgrade on the striking options they already had (Sessegnon / Berahino) although, admittedly, he did have a decent World Cup. |  | | |
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