\n U\u2019s head coach Gary Rowett said: \u201cShemmy has been training. We\u2019ve got to assess where some of those players are. We\u2019ve had some players that have played more minutes than others in pre-season.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got some players that might only over the last two or three weeks have played 45 minutes in pre-season.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt won\u2019t necessarily be on paper this is what I think my strongest starting line-up XI is. This will be the most competitive starting XI I think is ready to attack the first game.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf you\u2019re one of those players, you get an opportunity to stay in the team. We\u2019ve got that competition this year, we\u2019ve got stronger competition this year.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \n Rowett added: \u201cWe\u2019ve had some challenges. It\u2019s probably been very unusual in terms of the amount of injuries that we\u2019ve had over a period of time, but that\u2019s what it is.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019m sure every manager of a Championship side this pre-season will say \u2018we\u2019ve had some injuries\u2019.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s not ideal. Everyone will say the same thing. You want every single one of your players available and the reality is that\u2019s why you have a squad to cope with one or two of those.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cYou hope it doesn\u2019t come that early, but we\u2019ll be ready to go on the pitch and start the game.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019ll be ready to make an impact. I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll be keen to do that in the first game. Pre-season is over. The real stuff now starts.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cPortsmouth had a good season themselves, a little bit similar to us last season. Home form was a big factor in that for them, home factor was a big factor for us.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a new season, it\u2019s a new game. I don\u2019t think either manager will read too much into the game from last season.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a fresh one, but for the first one, certainly we\u2019re hoping to get off to a good start. That\u2019s our focus. It\u2019s in front of our fans and the emphasis is on us to go and make the running in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U\u2019s welcome Portsmouth in their Sky Bet Championship opener, and are without a handful of first team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322],"tags":[1630,105,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-330321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114998359345410564","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a> CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE OXFORD MAIL ONLINE (Image: Newsquest)<\/a>\n<\/p>\n