Harvey Barnes is “not currently” close to returning, according to Eddie Howe, who also insisted that other players might return before the winger.
He responded, “No, not currently,” when asked if our summer signing was close to getting back into the game. Barnes is not among the players who is most likely to return.
After Sunday’s 4-1 loss to Spurs, the manager spoke with the media about Sean Longstaff and Callum Wilson’s return and their prospects of starting on Wednesday;
Saying, “You’ve got Callum and Sean, put them on the pitch,” would have been simple today. But I have to use extreme caution with them because they’re not quite right.
Wilson and Longstaff will be superior for today. They had a strong thirty minutes, but we’ll have to evaluate each game individually because Wednesday’s will be hard to predict. We hope that in the coming weeks, more players will return to the team.
The question of Lewis Hall’s lack of playing time was then posed to Howe, with many supporters questioning why he hasn’t been given a chance while Kieran Trippier has appeared to be in such disarray. The 46-year-old stated that it would be difficult to exclude Trippier due to his attacking threat and Tino because of his performances at left-back:
Tino Livramento has performed admirably at left back, in my opinion. Additionally, Kieran has his undeniable skills at right back. That would be the cause. Lewis needs to give a strong performance when he enters.
Trippier is extremely difficult to leave out of your lineup when he contributes to your greatest attacking threat each and every week.
Even today, particularly in the second half, Kieran had a few instances when he made some really excellent crosses. We will definitely miss this exceptional technician when we play Fulham.
