Should we field the 2nd team against Plzen?

Now that we are through to the next round, should we play he 2nd stringers such as Joe Hart?

No way.....goals give confidence that can carry on into the PL......Sergio deserved a match ball as well tonight.

We can still win this group....long shot I know.

Bayern are through - and 1-0 to Plzen tonight, with an away game to CSKA and then us at home.........

I say we keep going for goals...it breeds confidence.....just hope we tighten up the back line and not lose confidence in that area.

All out to win the group I say.

Would like to get a settled back 4 1st, or at least try anyone at left back which IMO is our weakest position.
Rest as many of the Midfield and rotate the forwards but just sort out the defence....
Come back VK !!
Problem is we have a Euro squad which limits EDS/acadamy players.

Cliche is not as bad as some make out, all players make the odd mistake and while i agree he has not been as good as last season, that could be levelled at a few of the squad. Without VK we are weaker defensively in general but the CB's we have are experienced enough to be better than they have been showing us lately and its up to the coaching staff to work on the areas where they have been weak and making gaffs.

In a word, no.  We should go all out to hammer Plzen and make a statement of intent.  We do that and, assuming Bayern beat CSKA, we will be 3 points behind.  If we beat Bayern by three clear goals, we go top of the group on the head to head result.

Yes, it's a big ask.  But why not go for it?  It can't hurt to try and beating the current champions will be a good boost!

It would be the obvious thing to do against Plzen, as a 2nd string outfit should still be able to comfortably beat them at home.....and tbh, i can see 1 or 2 changes taking place.

I totally get blues arguement but we don't necessarily need to beat them 8-0. Imo (as long as we beat Plzen), it's more important to go to Munich and right a few wrongs from the home game, in turn putting abit of a marker down for the knock-out stages.

I'd honestly take a 2-1 home win and a 1-0 win in Munich.....that'd be better than winning 8-0 at home and losin 2-0 away.

Exactly Den, there is no marker to be put down by winning 5 or 6 nil.

The game is sandwhiched between two possible tricky (ish) home games against Spurs and Swansea. We should be resting some players for the Plzen game to be ready for the Swansea game. We have 12 matches in 5 weeks after the internaitional break so I'm sure some guys will need a rest.

Let's be honest, Dzeko and Lopes up front would do for me. Navas, Rodwell, Garcia, Milner should be good enough in midfield and it should be a run out for Lezza and Boyata again with Richards and Kolarov at full back. Joe Hart should also get some game time.

Topdawg wrote:Exactly Den, there is no marker to be put down by winning 5 or 6 nil.

Okay, so perhaps there isn't.  The goal difference won't be of much use to us so any win will be enough.  But I don't think we should make wholesale changes at the degree you're suggesting, Dawg.  By all means park a few of these lads on the bench and have them ready in case we're struggling to get that all important goal, but changing the entire team seems a bit suicidal.

I know Plzen are the whipping boys of the group, but they're not so poor as to be simply beaten by our second string.  They'll want to get some points to save face, so I'm not expecting them to pitch up and let us play.

We have a very small window of opportunity to head the group and get a potentially easier draw in the next round.  Granted, that window requires a win by 3 clear goals over Bayern, which is a very tall order.  But it also requires us to grab all the points against Plzen.

Maybe I'm asking too much, but if the opening is there, surely we've got to at least try and take advantage of it?

I'm with you Leo on this one - if there's a chance to top the group...then go for it.

If the CL is MP's top priority this season - let's get the job done and see if we can get a better draw in the next stage.

Come on guys, are we honestly saying that our 2nd string can't beat Plzen? If that's the case we have big problems.

There's more of a chance of our 2nd string beating Plzen at home, than our 1st string winning by 3 clear goals in Munich

shakencity wrote:There's more of a chance of our 2nd string beating Plzen at home, than our 1st string winning by 3 clear goals in Munich

Granted......or scoring 2 goals in the last 3 minutes of a game to win the league title....

Topdawg wrote:Come on guys, are we honestly saying that our 2nd string can't beat Plzen? If that's the case we have big problems.

Bayern only beat them by one goal last night...

leopold wrote:

Topdawg wrote:Come on guys, are we honestly saying that our 2nd string can't beat Plzen? If that's the case we have big problems.

Bayern only beat them by one goal last night...

And what score did we beat them away?

Robben didn't play and Dante, Boateng, Martinez and Manszukic were on the bench.

Topdawg wrote:Robben didn't play and Dante, Boateng, Martinez and Manszukic were on the bench.

Exactly.  Bayern played with a half strength team and beat them by one goal.  And we're suggesting we play with an entire second string?  We only beat them by 3 last time, Bayern hammered five past them.  And yes, I know we've got the home advantage, but since when has that been a guarantee?

Look, I appreciate that I'm in the minority here, I know we're already qualified and we don't need to do much work, but I refuse to buy into the notion that Plzen will be a walkover.  Maybe they will be, but why chance it?

Oh, and the club have already fleeced me for thirty odd quid for the ticket because I'm on the cup scheme.  They'd best not play a weak team and lose, because that would piss me off quite badly.

I'm with you Leo.

Bayern were absolute rubbish last night.And Manzukic may have been on the bench, but he came off it to score the goal.Whichever way you look at it the next round is going to be stiffer than we have had so far:P