Against Chelsea, with Rafael Benitez opting to go all defensive on us, one centre-back was conspicuous by his absence, Jamaal Lascelles.
Now we were, wrongly, under the impression that the 24-year-old club captain had picked up a knock.
However, it turns out that, according to the news source, the Daily Mail, that wasn’t the case.
Our referenced source is of the opinion that Lascelles was dropped after a training ground disagreement with the boss.
Our source expands on its insinuation by championing the suggestion that Lascelles didn’t agree with Benitez decision to play a back-three and, also, wasn’t too keen on having to play on the right side of the three, as opposed to being in the centre.
Benitez, seemingly, pulled rank and chose to play a defensive back three of Fabian Schar, Federico Fernandez and Ciaran Clark.
It remains to be seen whether Lascelles absence will be restricted to just the one game or whether he’ll be cast into the wilderness for several fixtures.
Or perhaps it wasn’t the picture, as painted by our source, with our captain, on social media, commenting:
Frustrating not to be able to play today due to a slight ankle injury. Great effort from the boys against a top team
— Jamaal Lascelles (@Lascelles16) August 26, 2018
It’s a strange world we live in is it not?