How big are Zola's balls?

We all know he is a little guy but I wonder if Zola has big balls?. He showed he is willing to admit to being wrong last Sunday when he reverted to 4-4-2, albeit he opted for Franco, who can drop deep apparently, rather than Hines whose more natural instinct is to sit higher and play off a target man striker. That may just be because General Franco is the better player, however.

The big question is, what will Zola do now? Will he revert back to 4-5-1, pulling in Kovac and packing his midfield, leaving himself with just Diamanti to play off Cole? Or will he go 4-4-2, stick with Franco in the team and play Diamanti in the hole from the start? Or will he go more attacking still by bringing in Hines for Franco?

Sunderland showed against Liverpool that if you show them too much respect, they have the ability to create chances and score goals and Upson has struggled against Kenwyne Jones in the past. Remember last season that Cisse missed four or five good chances in the corresponding match; I don't think Bent will be as profligate in his current frame of mind. Last season, Sunderland resorted to pumping high balls into our box and, time and time again, the red top of Collins headed it clear, but there will be no Collins today sadly. For all the optimism following the come back against Arsenal, this is a difficult game and if we defend as we did last Sunday, we will be stuffed. We have to stop Bent and Jones which means contending with Bent's pace - the same pace that undid us against Liverpool and Stoke, and the aerial threat of Kenwyne - and we didn't handle the crossed ball well against Arsenal did we?

One change has to happen because we have lost Parker due to that ridiculous sending off. Now the bravest decision would be to make two changes from last Sunday's team, bringing in Diamanti for Parker and Hines for Franco. This would send out a very clear message to Sunderland, we're not scared of you, we're coming to get you! The team would go out on the front foot and would be looking to attack a potentially defensively frail Sunderland from the off (Richardson may be playing left back). Sunderland would be worried sick about the pace of Hines just as they were terrified last season by the pace of Bellyache. By opting for the one change, leaving Franco up front, Zola will still be sending out a positive message whilst aiming for a more compact look to the team. In both of these scenarios, Noble would be asked to "hold" the midfield in place of Parker.

More likely, Zola will elect to draft Kovac into the team in place of Parker. Now if he does this and also selects Diamanti in place of Noble, we will still have an offensive look about us. Kovac might be better suited to breaking up opposition attacks than Noble and should offer better protection to the high ball into our box, although he failed in that role against Liverpool. What's more, Noble had a mare last week and perhaps is in need of a break. Has he played too much football over the last 12 months or is the new baby giving him sleepless nights? Whatever it is, he is not a future England player based on recent performances.

My hunch is that Zola will revert to a 5-5-1 formation, setting out to suffocate the threat that Sunderland pose. If he does this, Cole will again find himself isolated unless Diamanti is encouraged to play very high. Can we score enough goals like this? Well Collison showed on Sunday that he still retains his desire to get into the box and with Kovac anchoring behind the midfield diamond, perhaps Noble will feel more confident about breaking forward. The team set up would effectively be 4-1-3-1-1, with Collison, Noble and Behrami operating as the traditional midfield, Kovac sweeping in front of the back four and behind the midfield three, and Diamanti playing in the hole. The personnel are right to make this system work - in fact I would argue that Kovac is a better option than Parker in this set up because he is more defensively minded and so will be much more likely to hold his position. This should give confidence to Collison, Noble and Diamanti to break forward, especially given Behrami is on hand to protect the back four too. The set up looks defensive but actually could be ideally suited to fast counter attacking football, sucking Sunderland forward, then hitting them on the break. But the downside is that there is no blistering pace in the team without Stanislas or Hines.

Basically there are a number of options and we could argue the merits of any of them. How big are Zola's balls? We will find out when the team sheet is revealed this afternoon!