Owls ‘won’t take any risks’ with cup selection – Carvalhal
CARLOS CARVALHAL announced himself to the wider English football public two years ago courtesy of stunning wins for Sheffield Wednesday over Premier League duo Arsenal and Newcastle United in the League Cup.
Despite that, the Portuguese head coach insists ahead of tonight’s second-round tie at Bolton Wanderers that the Owls cannot afford to take any risks in the competition due to his overwhelming priority being making it third time lucky in the Championship this season.
“It is not the main competition,” he said when asked about the trip to the Macron Stadium. “We don’t take risks. We will play a strong team and we will try to go as far as we can, but understanding again the situation.
“We will do our best. The preparation is the same for this game as it was for Fulham. We have prepared for the game, analysed the opponent and try to do our part.
“The little difference is we don’t take risks. We won’t take any risks. We will put out a strong team to do our best in this competition.”
His comments point to multiple changes against Phil Parkinson’s Trotters with Saturday’s league trip to Burton Albion in mind.
Joe Wildsmith will start in goal, while Sam Winnall and Jordan Rhodes are likely to come in up front as the Owls look to build momentum on the back of Saturday’s fine win at Fulham.
“We will play the players that we feel is the strongest to play,” added Carvalhal.
“We have a squad, we believe in all the players and we will choose the best 11 we understand in this moment for the game.” GIVEN that Middlesbrough’s travel sickness is such that they have not sampled an away victory in a whole calendar year, home comforts are likely to be welcomed this evening.
Boro’s last win on their travels arrived on August 21, 2016 – a 2-1 derby success at Sunderland – and with consecutiive losses on the road so far this term, back-toback Riverside games this week should provide succour.
Garry Monk’s side have triumphed in both home games so far in 2017-18 and will be eyeing more of the same against Iron tonight and Preston North End on Saturday afternoon.
Acknowledging that fact, fullback George Friend said: “We have looked good at home in the two games so far this season so it is good to get another home draw in the cup.
“It all started with that strong beginning against Augsburg in the last game of pre-season. We have taken that form well into the Riverside games.”
Boro have snubbed interest from Leeds United in striker Rudy Gestede, while also working towards sealing a £2.5m deal to bring Birmingham City defender Ryan Shotton to Teesside.
Gestede quickly emerged as a target for Leeds following Chris Wood’s £15m sale to Burnley, with the player well known to United’s director of football Victor Orta.
The Spaniard was working in his previous role as head of recruitment at Boro when Gestede joined in a £6m move from Aston Villa in January.
With Gestede having started the season in encouraging fashion, Boro are unlikely to encourage any further bids.