Seven players who screwed up their Carabao chance, including Leeds pair and West Ham man

A couple of Leeds signings were poor in their awful Carabao Cup exit, while players who wasted their chance at West Ham and Sunderland will be replaced soon
Sam Johnstone (Wolves)
The revelation that Hwang Hee-chan’s grandfather had passed earlier in the week and the forward played despite being offered the opportunity to return to South Korea absolves him of censure.
Hwang was poor and did as much to add to Jorgen Strand Larsen’s value as the Newcastle target’s two game-turning goals, but that is substantial mitigation.
The assist for Rodrigo Gomes’ opener was also an act of genius.
It is difficult to pinpoint many other players who fluffed their lines in such a stirring comeback win – and even questioning the keeper is debatable considering neither West Ham goal was particularly his fault beyond a usual reticence to come off his line.
But Jose Sa must be the most vulnerable starting keeper in the league and Johnstone did nothing to challenge his place. His distribution is as poor, his shot-stopping ability no less underwhelming, the confidence he emits in a defence just as infinitesimal.
Johnstone has conceded 21 goals and kept a single clean sheet in 11 games since signing for £10m. It is a level of waste Wolves cannot afford.
READ MORE:Â Leeds, Sunderland lose on pens, West Ham mess up: Carabao Cup second round results
Guido Rodriguez (West Ham)
Not the worst West Ham midfielder against Wolves but Graham Potter is insistent that his inevitable demise must take place upon the hill of James Ward-Prowse, so the role of his partner in the middle remains up for grabs.
And Rodriguez did little to shift that particular needle. The penalty-conceding trip on Jhon Arias summed up a lethargic, immobile performance which prevented the Hammers from establishing a proper foothold at Molineux.
There has been speculation all summer over a move to Spain or Saudi Arabia and the impending arrival of Soungoutou Magassa, as well as reported interest in Ibrahim Sangare, Exequiel Palacios and Lorenzo Pellegrini, suggests the Hammers are belatedly aware of where the majority of their problems lie.
Rodriguez joined last summer and has started in six wins, two of which were hilariously against Manchester United. It will be neither a long nor difficult goodbye for either party.
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Julian Araujo (Bournemouth)
Andoni Iraola made eight changes to his Bournemouth side and sensed a lack of “aggression” and “urgency” as a result. He felt it was “a step backward” from their promising start to the season.
The wide forwards both signed for around £20m could have done more. Amine Adli had a single shot and key pass while Ben Gannon-Doak managed neither before being substituted at half-time in his first professional game since January.
Having last faced Premier League opposition on the opening day of the 2023/24 season, the Scot can be excused.
Perhaps Araujo warrants similar exemption given the hamstring injury which sidelined him for months last season, but he did still muster more than 500 minutes of game time for the Cherries and started against both Arsenal and Manchester City in May.
It does not reflect well on the 24-year-old, signed from Barcelona last summer, that Adam Smith remains almost entirely unopposed at right-back despite being over a decade older.
Even if he had played well, that entirely avoidable red card in stoppage time would have ruled him out of the next game anyway. As it is, it confirmed a selection decision Iraola would have already long since settled on for the weekend.
Antoni Milambo (Bournemouth)
It feels harsh to put a negative slant on such an accomplished performance and win from a Brentford side far more competent than most if not all gave them credit for after the opening weekend.
Absolutely fair play to Keith Andrews for giving some back about the “narrative” which has surrounded the Bees all summer after the game.
But the nine changes he made to the side which beat Aston Villa could not all be seamless and productive; there was bound to be a drop-off in certain areas.
And there was a notable – albeit entirely understandable – difference in quality between the creative force and fulcrum that is Mikkel Damsgaard, and the slightly lost, ineffective Milambo.
Brentford will be patient with a 20-year-old new to the country and league, whose senior career consists of 41 starts in a range of different positions, but 16 touches and four completed passes from six attempted in just under an hour does tell an unflattering story.
After being taken off at half-time on the opening day and left as an unused substitute in Brentford’s second game, Milambo might expect a limited diet of minutes while he acclimatises.
Zian Flemming (Burnley)
The word used in the player ratings from the local press was ‘rusty’. It was Flemming’s first start since he drew his personal campaign to a close with two goals and an assist in a crushing win over QPR in April, but he is among a clutch of Premier League players to come on as a substitute in both the first two games of the season.
Perhaps the 20 minutes afforded to him against Spurs and Sunderland have allowed a certain degree of torpor to set in.
Flemming was deployed alongside Armando Broja but in a slightly deeper, more involved role on the ball and some of it stuck. A couple of chances came and went and the game certainly didn’t pass him by.
But nor did the Dutchman impact the game enough. It is difficult not to see Mike Tresor’s delightful assist for the winner as a reflection on the player he replaced.
Patrick Roberts (Sunderland)
It is strange to think of this as Roberts’ fourth Premier League campaign, all with different clubs, over the span of more than a decade.
His seven appearances in the competition, from his debut having just turned 17 with Fulham to the fruitless cameo for Sunderland against Burnley last week at 28, have reached 99 minutes and zero starts.
That leaves an unshakeable sense he is not at the requisite level for a team hoping to survive in the top flight and little he produced beyond a converted penalty in the eventual shootout defeat to Huddersfield changed that.
Roberts stuck it out on the left and then right wing after a system shift but struggled to dictate things at home to League One opposition. Regis Le Bris could not be blamed if he pushes for stronger back-up on either side in the next week.
Jaka Bijol and Sean Longstaff (Leeds United)
Leeds endured the most miserable time of any Premier League side in the Carabao Cup second round. The momentum built with the late and deserved victory over Everton at Elland Road has been decimated by the thrashing at Arsenal and defeat to a troubled and much-changed Sheffield Wednesday.
Daniel Farke made nine alterations to his own starting line-up but would have expected a great deal more from those players, including a couple of Leeds debutants.
Karl Darlow cannot really hope to usurp Lucas Perri and that performance only solidified the goalkeeping pecking order, while Brenden Aaronson continues to infuriate Leeds supporters.
But new signings Jaka Bijol and Sean Longstaff looked especially exposed and diminutive in Farke’s new land of giants.
Bijol was slow and static throughout but especially for the own goal; his struggles against a relegation-battling Championship side’s kids are foreboding ahead of an imminent Premier League debut.
Longstaff has no such defence in terms of adjustment and adaptation, yet a player who lifted this trophy five months ago seemed overawed by and unequipped for the situation even before the miserable penalty which confirmed a Leeds exit.
At least Kobbie Mainoo is definitely joining Leeds to replace him.