Last time we played our full strength 11?

Thinking about the team we could put out on saturday, got me thinking, when was the last time we put out our strongest starting 11 from the squad?

The point being that this saturday, in my opinion at least, if we put out Marveaux, Ben Arfa and Santon instead of Obertan, Best and Raylor we could play our strongest possible team for the first time in god knows how long!

 

No one?

 

lol

 

on a serious note... i think we have a decent squad and i dont think we can point out our best 11 as we do have selection dilemmas for some of our places.

 

Best 11 on paper is different to on the pitch.

 

this as sunderland have found out the hard way

 

It wasn't last season because even at Everton (A) we were playing Routledge and Perch.

 

Don't know but it won't be Sunday because Pardew might not have the balls to drop Raylor and someone make way for Hatem

 

Are you suggesting, as many Sunderland fans do, that they have a better first 11 than us?

 

We havent played a strongest possible XI since our Championship season

 

that prbably came out wrong XD what i meant was that on paper they thought they're team was very strong... in reality its aload of old rejects thugs and inexperince

 

It's quite good we haven't and we're still getting results. Hopefully Pardew plays Ben Arfa and Santon, i worry about Lennon facing Raylor down the left.

 

i want this to but hes kind of in a lose lose here if he plays santon and we lose people will ask why we changed a winning formula and if we lose and dont change our team and lose everyone will question pardew's tactical ineptness
personaly ide bring in benny for best marv for ober and santon for raylor and play 451 think we really need to dominate the midfeild else we're screwed and both marv and guti are great at tracking back

 

Aye, it's a tough decision for Pardew, but i guess that's why he gets paid. Raylor just doesn't have the pace to keep up with Lennon, and his positioning against QPR was dreadful.

I guess Sunday at about 5:45 we'll know if Pardew was right with his tactics.

 

As has been said, we havent played a full strength team since the Championship, and you could argue even before that, as Barton made 7 apps and Saylor and Routledge didnt play any games together.

 

September 24th 1953

 

We didn't play that day.

 

Ben Arfa is still pretty much an unknown quantity in this division at this point so to say he should be in our strongest 11 would be a bit premature, although from what I've seen of him in glimpses for us and stuff from the french league he most likely will be.

We still dont know if Marveaux will be any good with a longer run of games either and I think Obertan is improving with each game that passes tbh.

I'm more happy about the fact that we seem to have a full squad to choose from *touch wood* at the moment, well apart from Williamson of course.

 

I hated the team, but for that short 4-game spell where Viduka, Owen, and Martins were all playing for a new contract under Keegan we looked like a very potent side

Or maybe it was just because the big names were actually performing at an acceptable rate for a few weeks...

 

I'm not convinced theres such thing as a full strength XI these days, with teams picking players to suit the opposition. Even ignoring injuries can anyone tell me the full strength first eleven of Man Utd or Chelsea? I don't think either Ferguson or Villas-Boas can, never mind us mere mortals.