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Opinion: Is Scott Parker sending a message to someone with his recent team selections?

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I’m not sure what message is trying to be sent, but I’m pretty sure that there was definitely one being sent.

Because there has to be something fishy about the way that Aleksandar Mitrovic was treated last night when the team was announced. I know that I have spoken recently about his bad run of form, and more importantly what the club needs to do to address it when it comes to the January transfer window.

However, to leave him on the bench, in my eyes there is something further afoot here, and quite frankly it can only really be because of one of two options.

Do we need to bring in a new centre-forward this window?

Yes

No

Either he is being rested, which might have made some sense last week coming off the international break, but having had eight days between games (and only playing for half an hour or so against Everton) I don’t think you can really use that line last night. But you could say it’s a message to the board saying that he doesn’t have the options up front necessary to cope properly and so Mitrovic will have to miss some games to see him through the season.

Or he’s simply been dropped from the starting line-up, which I think is Scott Parker sending a message to him that he needs to get his act together when presented with opportunities, or he could be spending a lot of time on the bench in the near future.

Either way you look at it, I think there are definitely some subliminal messages being put out here by the head coach, and I guess it will just be a case of waiting to see what else happens in the future to see which one it is.

What about you? What do you make of Parker’s decision to keep Mitrovic out of the side?

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