That's the million dollar question. I would personally leave Adam and Lucas in the middle and try Gerrard on the right instead of Henderson. Henderson can then be bled into the team throughout the season. But it's such a tough call, possibly Gerrard just behind Suarez..?? It will be very interesting to see what Kenny decides to do
Yeah It might of been. But to be honest it's a very tough one to answer without being behind the scenes.
Suarez Downing Gerrard Kuyt Would be attacking no doubt! i think Roma did something like this last year with a sort of "free" forward role for Totti and he just moved about.
It's hard to tell. Downing and Lucas are completely different and vitally important for the team so they are 100% safe. It's between Adam and Hendo. Adam can provide creativity from corners and set pieces, he has an eye for a pass when given space but when closed down he struggles. This can be a problem in our 'pass and move philosophy at times but one moment of genius from him can change the game. Hendo has a great cross on him and he excels on the right hand side, he is a great passer and has bags of energy but is often the safe player who doesn't do anything outstanding. Some of his through balls went missing against Stoke but this was due to kuyt going AWOL and having Saurez as a lone striker. Gerrard can come in for either one of those two and it wouldn't take much away in terms of quality as to who misses out.
Henderson seems to be the choice. Quite surprised at that, thought he's looked really good for you guys. I would have thought perhaps Kuyt would have been the one sacrificed and go with something like: Suarez Downing Gerrad Henderson Adam Lucas Though I suppose he has time on his side, training and playing with the likes of Gerrard, Adam etc will help him big time too. Anyway, here's for a good game on Sunday! (as long as Spurs win that is... )
Saurez doesn't really excel as a lone striker, I would hope that Carroll will come in. Carroll hasn't played badly so far, just the service to him has been poor and a perfectly good goal disallowed. When he came on against Stoke and Bolton you could see the team had stopped trying to launch the ball to him at every opportunity, kind of like how we played with him against Man City. If we play the same way in games to come we will get the best out of him.
How comes Suarez and Carroll don't start together? A £55m strike force is a bit weird to not be pairing up, I know Carroll has had a few niggling injuries but even so...
I think with Stoke and Bolton's aerial ability it wasn't feasible to try and whip crosses onto Carroll's head so Kenny went for Saurez and Kuyt to try and poach a goal or two. Wasn't to be unfortunately.
I would have thought having Carroll more so than Suarez for them games would have been better. Especially to help the defence out for corners, crosses and the Delap slingshot.
I believe the reason why we haven't seen the Suarez/Carroll pairing has been 4 fold: 1) The nature of the opposition that we have played so far. 2) That the midfield has had to come to terms with playing with each other and to add 2 strikers to that - each demanding different types of service - would have been too much. 3) We did not have a reliable 3rd striker to go to if either of them 'failed'. 4) We did not have Gerrard available to take either a DM or attacking role.
And? We didn't struggle with Stoke's attack.... they got a lucky penalty and that was their only attack of the game. I wouldn't call that struggling with their attack, would you?
I am a bit worried for this match. Tottenham having Var der Vaart out is a blessing in disguise in my opinion, he is trying to take the Rooney, Suarez role and he just isn't up to it. Having the two strikers in Adebayor and Defoe is one of the best partnerships for this season I think and will score a lot. The signing of Parker is also brilliant and exactly what you needed and will see you finish above Arsenal I think. Tough game and away at White hart lane, I think it will be a 1-1 draw.
Though in all seriousness, at the start of the match you would have thought Stoke would have caused problems in the air, hence the reason for having someone like Carroll to counter it. Plus fight fire with a bit of fire, Stoke have never really been aerially challenged, perhaps knocking a few long balls and high crosses could have caught 'em off guard.
Carroll and Suarez started against us at Anfield last season and it didn't really work. Carroll's fitness looked quite suspect and Suarez looked quite unsure as to what his exact role was. I'd have thought that it was a workable partnership, but it probably needs some time to gel and Carroll still doesn't look sharp.
From the off, Carra had Crouch in his pocket. Let's face it Carra knew all about him and how to deal with him - he'd done it enough times on the training pitch! As they essentially played 3 CB's I doubt strongly if Carroll would have been able to do more than he did when he came on - act as a decoy.
Having Crouch in your pocket doesn't seem hard for Prem centre backs these days to be fair. A guy of his height should be lethal in the air yet at times when he was at Spurs, I had more faith in Defoe winning headers! Fair enough dude. I suppose to beat Shawcross, Huth and Upson is a tough task for any striker.
