please log in to view this image Wednesday 13th December 8pm Premier League Wembley Stadium The midweek rest that a lot of our players had for the APOEL game seems to have done them the world of good. Stoke were brushed aside in what's becoming a rather familiar fashion, as we put another bunch past them. The first top-flight side to register four consecutive wins against the same side by four goals or more. Now we move from the comfortably familiar to a side that we rarely face. They are coached by a man who was a long-term fixture at White Hart Lane, though. Chris Hughton lead Brighton through a rather eventful campaign last season. The club has settled into the Amex Stadium and they were in their sixth consecutive year in the Championship. After something of a staggered start, they hit their stride and went on a long unbeaten run from September to January. It took them into the top 2 and they never dropped out of it, sealing their promotion to the top-flight. It's their first time in the Premier League and they haven't been a top-flight side since 1982/83. Their current manager was playing for us back then. They've found this division rather hard going so far, as most people would expect. Four wins, five draws and seven losses leaves them looking over their shoulder in 13th place. Their top scorer from the last campaign, Glenn Murray, is still their major threat, having scored five goals so far. Summer buy Pascal Gross is next up with three and he's also contributed five assists. A lot of their attacking play comes from out wide, though they're not afraid to go the direct route, either. There were no league meetings between the two sides in recent seasons, obviously. Here are the highlights of the last cup meeting between the two: Erik Lamela came off the bench to make the difference, scoring the first and getting involved in the second. Harry Kane pounced on a loose ball following a Roberto Soldado shot to finish off the visitors to the Lane. Alderweireld and Wanyama are still out through injury, while Sanchez serves the second game of his three match ban. Steve Sidwell misses out for Brighton, as he has an ongoing back injury. Lineups for each side's last league game: Spurs: Lloris; Trippier, Dier, Vertonghen, Davies; Winks, Dembele; Eriksen, Alli, Son; Kane. Subs: Vorm, Aurier, Foyth, Rose, Sissoko, Lamela, Llorente. League form: WDLLDW. Brighton: Ryan; Bruno, Duffy, Dunk, Suttner; Schelotto, Stephens, Propper, Brown; Gross; Murray. Subs: Krul, Hunemeier, March, Kayal, Baldock, Hemed, Izquierdo. League form: DWLDLL. Referee: Robert Madley. TV: Not televised. Do we need any changes from the convincing win against Stoke? Should we rotate the fullbacks or leave them in and then rotate against City? Do we need to rest anyone else or give anyone a chance from the bench?
Hugo Aurier, Foyth, Jan, Rose Dier, Winks Lamela, Eriksen, Son Kane Vorm, Tripps, Davies, Dembele, GK, Alli, Llorente Dembele played a lot better the other day AND played for 90 minutes so considering we have City after Brighton, I'd save him for that and throw in Foyth for his first Prem appearance, moving Dier into CM. Lamela is looking a lot sharper than I expected and while I don't think he can complete 90 minutes just yet, I think a solid 60-65 would be great, will help to build him up leading into the congested festive period.
Good call to put Rose in there. Ben D had a really good game at the weekend and Danny Boy will know he’ll have to impress to stand any chance of staying in.
I see no reason why just for once a while, we can't go with an unchanged team. Modern day football doesn't seem to like the "never change a winning team" policy.
Full strength for Brighton in my opinion, we will find it hard away at £ity whatever team we put out, so make sure of the 3 points in a very winnable mid week game and take it from there.
Depends who did it When Ranieri did it at Chelsea he was dubbed "Tinkerman" by the press and the label stuck When Alex Ferguson went something like sixty games without fielding the same team in back-to-back games, funnily enough his chopping and changing was never mentioned...
SAF didn't chop and change much from choice. Utd had some terrible luck with injuries at times - for example, so many defenders were out away to Fulham in 2010 (I think), Carrick and de Laet had to play at centre half. He did rest players at times - usually at home to lower table teams - but it was rare for less than 8 or 9 of his first choice XI to be picked. And he never had the squad depth of the current managers. If players could be rested, the option was often to blood youngsters in their place. He rarely tinkered with the back four when players were fit.
Yeah I'm loving Ben this season mate, think he's been great and should be one of the players in early contention for our POTS. Tripps has also been class in my opinion, too. I want them both fresh for City because they're going to be in for one tough afternoon. Aurier's getting better though and I think will soon be looking at trying to displace Tripps as first choice (won't be easy though), he just needs to cut out those random wild tackles. Rose is nowhere near Davies' level yet but I feel we need to play him when possible so that he can get up to speed.
Luck = statistics. Statistically your squad is going to suffer a number and types of injuries. Similarly those injuries are statistically going to require particular recovery times. Managers in the face of this have to keep every player in every position match-fit throughout a season, knowing that subs and total fixtures do not provide enough time to really achieve this.
Which is why most managers rotate at the right time against teams they think they can afford to. SAF never got called for it because he rarely made a bad change.
Not televised? Try South African Super Sport, every Prem match and every CL match is live, not bad for 35 USD per month (a tad over 20 quid). Also every F1 race plus qualli, every cricket test match and almost all international rugby matches and all Super 15 matches. On top of that South African football, all big african matches and almost all of la Liga. I've a good mind to bring a dstv box back to the UK. A mate tells me that you need a big satelite dish, about 1.25 m diameter to get a decent reception in the UK though.
Last time we tried SuperSport it had the unfortunate side effect of Bongani Khumalo hanging around for four years....
Utd played 66 games that season. There was still a hardcore of a dozen players who played in 40 or more games. He had significant injuries in the squad and had to manage the workloads of ageing players like Scholes, Giggs & Neville. Utd won the title, League Cup, World Club Championship, were runners-up in the CL and reached the F.A.Cup semi-final. I think SAF managed his players pretty well
There's no doubt that he was good at it, but he rotated a lot. He had to. It prevents burnout and keeps squad players fresh, sharp and involved. It hurts teams with smaller squads because the players that they have to use aren't as good. We don't have enough depth to do it across the team.
The problem is rotating key players who make the team tick. Even Pep was under pressure to get Kompany and Silva in the team on Sunday because he doesn't have the same experience and quality in reserve. The art is being able to identify which players can play in which games. I can't imagine resting Kane is an option, but there will be games where Llorente's strengths will trouble opponents if he gets the right service. That means not just rotating players, but being prepared to adapt the style of play to the suit those selected. SAF tended to play the same formation whoever he picked and whoever the opponents were. 4-4-2 (perhaps 4-4-1-1). He didn't overcomplicate the style or tactics very often. In the '90s in the CL, he perhaps should have done.
