Team v Hull

Dare I say that this should be a routine game. I won't. 

Pants
Micah  Nasty   Lescott  Clichy
Navas   Milner   Rodwell   Silva
Dzeko    Aguero 

Micah is back training on Friday so may not be fit, in that case Zaba to start.

Would like to see Milner in instead of Navas and Rodwell given a go instead of Fernandinho, but can't see it. Hopefully Nasty's back to replace Garcia and i'd like to see Negredo up top with Serge.....so this is how I think/hope we'll be lining up against Hull City Tigers:

...............Hart
Zab....Nasty.....Lescott....Clichy
..........Fernandinho....Yaya
Navas...............................Silva
............Negredo....Aguero

Edin not done much wrong though?

...............Pants
Zab....Nasty.....Lescott....Clichy
..........Milner....Yaya
Navas...............................Silva
............Dzeko....Aguero


We all know YaYa plays if fit, doesn't even slightly come up for debate.

Annoyingly, Edin's been fine.  I say annoyingly, because I've got Negredo on my fantasy squad and he's not getting much game time.

I think we're all in agreement that Pants should play then!

...................................Pants.........................................

Zab................Boyata....................Nasty.............Clichy.....


Milner..........................Yaya................................Silva.....

................Navas......................................Nasri.............

....................................Aguero......................................

Pants
Micah, Nasty, Lezza, Clichy
Milner, Silva, Rodwell, Jovetic
Aguero, Dzeko

Hart
Zabaleta Nastasic Lescott Clichy
Fernandinho yaya
Navas Aguero Silva
Dzeko

Wonder if we will have Demichelis before the weekend.

The annoying thing about that is he is 32, played under Manuel at Malaga last year but left when his contract finished in the summer.

So we end up paying Ath Madrid 4-5m when he should have been free.  We should have held onto Kolo rather than scratching around like this.

Totally.  Getting shot of Kolo to replace him with someone who is older and with no PL experience is just madness.

I totally agree.  Kolo has done a great job so far for Liverpool - they must be laughing down their sleeves.  Typical that we have 2 main defenders out injured - and are left with Hobson's choice.

Wensdi wrote:I totally agree.  Kolo has done a great job so far for Liverpool - they must be laughing down their sleeves.  Typical that we have 2 main defenders out injured - and are left with Hobson's choice.

Bloody Hobson wouldn't be putting Lescott and Garcia together when he has Boyata! he'd be hammering nails in his eyes at that choice! 

Sod's law that we got rid of Kolo so quick, who knew that we'd be down our 1st choice centre backs so quickly? not good start, we now have to play catch up and sort out the defence sharpish, thankfully it's only Hull and not a top side, and at home!

Bewar3them00n wrote:Bloody Hobson wouldn't be putting Lescott and Garcia together when he has Boyata! he'd be hammering nails in his eyes at that choice!

Hobson in!  He sounds like the right man to lead us to glory!  

I must admit I'm still not sure why he'd leave a CB on the bench and play a DM who can't tackle out of position instead.  I mean, Boyata did well a couple of seasons ago and the only mistake he made was in the Arsenal game where he got himself sent off in the fourth minute.  I remember watching him keep Drogba quiet and if he could do that, he'd have had no problems with Campbell.

And I don't buy this left-side-right-side stuff either.  They're central defenders, does it actually matter what side of the park they play on?  They're there to be the penultimate line of defence, all they really need to be able to do is put in a clean tackle, be able to head the ball and to be able to punt it upfield or into touch if necessary.  Technically, it doesn't matter which foot they prefer.  Too much is made of this notion of "balance" in defence.  Look where "balance" got us at the weekend!  We played Garcia over Boyata because of this so-called "balance" and we LOST!  Screw "balance", we need to stop goals being scored against us!!

Well said Leo

Another novel idea would be for the CBs to mark the biggest threats from corners and the taller players such as Yaya & Dzeko to pick up the remaining threats

Yes, that would be a fabulous idea TMG.  I mean, it's not like it's untried; all we'd need to do is look at, oh, any one of the 91 other clubs in the football league that employ the same system and witness how they handle it.  And perhaps look at those with a decent defence and see how they concede two sloppily defended corners in nine months instead of nine minutes.

It's all very well applying these European footballing virtues into the team, but they need to realise that we play maybe three teams tops that stand off and sixteen that press.

Unlike Spain, no teams are afraid to have a go in the Prem, especially at home. Pellegrini is a smart man ( or so they say) an engineer no less, well get that bloody Garcia spanner out of the works, and get it running smooth again!
We kept hold of Boyata for so long for a reason, so give the guy a run, Garcia has been woeful, we should've shipped him out and played 3 at the back, even Dzeko would've defended better!
  It may be that we take a while to find our 'balance" under Pellers, well, as long as we win something that's fine, but another abject away performance and I'm afraid the honeymoon period will be over, away is where we need to pick up points, for me that was 3 points dropped already.

Back to the Hull game, I'm hoping that this Hull is the one that turns up:



And not this one:



Although I had to laugh at that goal celebration!

They gave Chelsea bit of a scare, so please, please, please Manny, don't let Garcia anywhere near the team tomorrow! Nasty is back thunkfully, as confirmed by Manny in the press conference, so we should cope against Hull.
  Micah back full training monday, so still a few weeks for him.

Like I said, the team owe us a performance after sunday, ruined our BBQ that did, even had my dad phoning up from France as sick as a Parrot, had to stick him on suicide watch!!
  I don't think he'll be dropping Hart, well, not for home games, but Pants needs a run out, he showed his worth in virtually every game he plays, and it'd be a bold move to drop Hart, but on current form he's been average, I can't keep defending him, let's hope they work on crosses in training!

Crosses and distribution.  Both are areas that Joe seems to have gone backwards in, but both are areas that Pants has shown he can do well.  Plus our chief concerns with him, his ability to stop low shots and his positioning, seemed to me to have been put right in his FA Cup performances - given he conceded one goal in 5 games.

I'd say a home game is the ideal place to start him, at least he'll be in front of a friendly crowd who'll cheer him on.

I can't understand how a 6ft 3 keeper like Hart cannot catch or get a good fist on a ball. Even if  forward jumps surely a keepers reach from a jump should suffice.

Probably because he's too busy being distracted by the player stood on his boots.  You don't see world class keepers letting this be a distraction.

Yeah I understand what you are saying leo but it is not just that instance I am talking about, It is his general performance.