After a 3 nil away win what would you do next Monday. Lee will probably be available and a couple of the injured Jose and Chaps might be fit to return. Do you change a winning team?
Nope - clean sheet, 3 goals nothing needs to be changed Davis Harding Martin Hooiveld Fox Cork Schneiderlin Hammond Lallana Guly Connolly subs: Bart, Fonte (if fit), De Ridder, Lee, Holmes but saying that, knowing adkins he will drop martin/harding/ and one of the midfielders for the game
The "Don't change a winning team" is an old myth and tactic from when you had a squad of 14 or 15 players. In the modern game, you have 20+ players to select from and you choose the right team for the game and opposition. Nigel does this often and is usually successful. Several times early on in the season this question was asked and each time NA was ridiculed for making changes, they were successful. NA will make the right call. Have faith and let him make that decision.
Lee has to be assessed and practice with the team..can't see him being involved except from the bench. Adkins would love to introduce him for 10-15 min if we were well in the lead against Leicester. If we were losing, he could be introduced as a match changer, but that would be a bit harsh. All depends on when he gets here and what he looks like in full training. As for the rest, Adkins will probably no more than tweak the team, but will not risk any injured player with so much of the season to go. Plays his cards so close to his chest even his top button's not sure of the team.
Well said. There's no solid reasoning behind "Don't change a winning formula" when every team you come up against has a different system to counter, different players to combat and different defenders to beat. If we played against Arsenal and managed to somehow beat them by playing physically and putting the ball in the air, then great. But if we travel to the Britannia a couple of days after and played the same it'd be far less successful.
"Would you change the team? " Yes definately. Although a great result yesterday, it was more to do with a poor Forest side than a good Saints performance. We had Lambert, Fonte, Richardson and Chaplow missing yesterday and any one of them would have improved the team. By the way, what is Richardson's injury?
Leicester should pose different problems, don't think they have a 'park the bus mentality', NA will have done his homework, and although he won't know the oppostions line up before the game, will probably select a squad for most eventualities and put out his best choice XI from what is available.
Think the midfield will stay the same against Leicester and if Guly recovers in time then it will be him and DC up top. If Richardson and Fonte are fully fit then i'm sure they will return to the team. Harding might get rewarded with a start at left back. Martin has done well, but Jose was not doing badly before he got injured so deserves to take his place back but the good news for Adkins is that Martins performances have meant he does not need to be rushed back.
Leicester are a good team just in poor form, Forest are ****e. If we manage to bring in Hooper before the game you can't tell me you can't tell me you wouldn't start him?.
Even if available, I wouldn't throw Chaplow or Lee straight into the starting XI. The former has been out for too long, and the latter needs to time to find his feet. Fonte and/or Richardson however would be a different story.
I have never listened to the 'never change a winning team' myth. So your telling me if we beat Leicester you would leave Lambert on the bench or out of the squad for Cardiff?
depends on fitness. Another 8 days could mean fonte or chaplow could be back. would like to aaron another game. also you don't know who we are going to sign. if we sign hooper then I'm sure he would go into most peoples starting XI's. Also if we signed a RM then I'm sure that we would prefer them on the right over jack cork or spiderman. You can make the call till sunday night/monday morning.
I'm sorry, if Richardson is fit he has to come in, bit harsh on Harding but Richardson deserves to play when fit
