With Dawson, King, Gallas and Tommy all unlikely to feature in the EL, who would you pick as captain? I would've though that Pav's probably going to be a regular in the competition, as it looks like Defoe's going to be given the nod ahead of him and Adebayor's move looks imminent. So I guess that'll make our two most senior players as Pav and Niko in the tournament so to keep them happy I'd say it has to be one of them. Anyother ideas?
You think that Huddlestone's unlikely to feature in the Europa League, SF? I'd have thought that he was a guaranteed starter, for most games. He won't be picked in the league ahead of Modric or Diarra, assuming that we sign him, so I'd expect the big man to be picked in every game, barring injuries. If we pick up Adebayor as well, then I'd expect Defoe to play a lot in the EL, too. Kaboul or Friedel would rival Huddlestone for the armband, for me. Possibly Sandro too, if Diarra has taken his place in the first XI and he returns from injury pretty soon. If we can still do a bit of business in this window, then we could rest our whole first XI and still have a very good side. Gomes; Corluka, King, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto; Lennon, Diarra, Modric, Bale; van der Vaart; Adebayor. Friedel; Walker, Dawson, Kaboul, Rose; Townsend, Sandro, Huddlestone, Pienaar; Kranjcar; Defoe. Considering that Cudicini, Bassong, Hutton, Jenas, Dos Santos, Palacios, Pavlyuchenko, Livermore, Bentley, Crouch and various youth players still don't make it into either team, I'd suggest that we need to trim the squad!
Eight and one former U21 international, Ensil. I didn't include Naughton or Caulker either, as they're both out on loan to other Premier League clubs, nor Khumalo who's in the Championship.
I think our midfield situation will be a case of horses for courses, I think we should be starting Huddlestone with Modric for most of our home games. away from home Diarra would be first choice because of how effective he is at breaking up the opposition's play. I'd also hope that Friedel would be our number one, Gomes scares the hell out of me, his handling is simply appalling. I'd give the armband to Pav, just on the basis that it might get him a little more interested in playing with a lot of our kids.
I'd pick a different first team in a slighly different formation but the sentiment is the same: this squad is much better than Arsenal's or Liverpool's and should be top four easily enough with an outside chance of much better if we can solve our longstanding problem (since 1962 ish) of being inconsistent in the league. My team would be Gomes; Walker, King, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto; Sandro, Huddlestone, Modric; Bale, van der Vaart; Adebayor. Back up Friedel; Corluka, Kaboul, Gallas, Rose; Livermore, Diarra, Pienaar; Lennon, Kranjcar; Pavlyuchenko. Thirds - including some loan players Cuducini; Hutton, Bassong, Khumalo, Naughton; Palacios, Jenas, Townsend; Dos Santos, Defoe; Crouch Can't find space for Bentley anywhere - we need to sell about eight players to make room for a couple more quality signings and developing youngsters like Kane and Caulker.
I'd give it to Kranjcar. It would send the message we want to keep him, and you might just get some response in terms of the effort he puts in.
He was given the Dinamo Zagreb captaincy when he was just 17, so it's not like he'd be new to the role. On the other hand, if Friedel is in goal in the Europa, he might be a good choice as captain as well.
I would probably go with Kranjcar too. With Friedel i just feel that a goalkeeper is too far away to call the shots and help the team out with motivation and positioning.
