With the arrival of Wilson Palacios Harry Redknapp, by his own admission, has a real selection headache this weekend for the Bolton game.
Zokora is highly rated by Redknapp, if not by others, and is seen as a must play partner for Modric. Luka is, of course, the mainstay of the midfield and isn’t going to be dropped for anyone.
So how does he do it? Dropping Pav is not going to happen because Defoe cannot be up top by himself. In turn a 3-5-2 could happen, but with our defence being a major issue, that could cause a world of problems, although it would solve the left-back/right-back/King issue in one move. But having Chimbonda back would suggest Harry is planning on using a right-back.
The obvious choice is a 4-1-3-2, with Zokora in front of the back four and a midfield of Palacios, Modric and probably Bentley on current form. This could be dangerous. Zokora can be hit and miss in this position and a three man creative midfield can be stretched and over-run.
Huddlestone could always play in the ‘quarterback’ role that he did so well in at the start of Harry’s reign, but he is out of favour. Furthermore, the chasing of N’Zogbia clouds the formation dilemma by showing that a left sided midfielder has been identified as a must have.
Personally I would drop Zokora and play 4-4-2 to see how well Palacios does alongside Modric as the all round midfield general we all hope he will be. If N’Zogbia does arrive he would simply slot in on the left to create, in my view, a well balanced and pretty daunting midfield.
How would you do it? Drop Zokora, or try and play all three?