As I understood it both Bamba and Bennett were injured in training (sounded like a collision), hence being on the bench rather than starting.

With Gunnars and NM-L injured, and Kadeem and Madine seemingly not considered good enough to risk, then there are 8 players (inc the 2 sub goalies) out of 25 we can't pick to influence the outfield team, so our matchday team picks itself really. We don't exactly have riches to bring on to change things.

Teams like Man City can bring in extra players who are U-23, such as Foden, to take pressure off the main squad if necessary. I don't think we have a single U-23 player who would make the matchday squad.

This season is just going to be hard and I'm delighted most of our fans yesterday understood that and continued to support the players.