With Lallana out then for me 442 again suits the players best with Lambert and Rodriguez taking it in turns to help the midfield. I don't want to see Rodriguez playing on the left again.
I see where you're coming from but we probably would have been well beaten by Chelsea anyway, so that wouldn't have been great for momentum either! I think it might work out in our favour that we have missed a difficult game and have a few games we can get something from while we are still on a decent run of form. We will probably play Chelsea now amongst harder teams so we will be back in 'nothing to lose' mode again like earlier in the season. Just hope we get at least some points from our next difficult run!
I don't think Lallana will be out for long. As said, Adkins would only say he won't play against Sunderland. Cork said, 'He didn't train today, but it's up to the manager if he plays on Saturday.' So Cork didn't dismiss it out of hand, so doubt Adam's leg is hanging off.
I reckon Cork had been told to keep it hush-hush, he looked a bit 'on the spot' when they asked him about it and quickly said it's up to the manager. Can't read too much into that. Personally I agree with you though and I wouldn't be surprised to see him back by the new year. I can't really see why they would be doing this song and dance if he was out for ages, they'd have to do it before every game!
From NA interview clear lallana wont play against Sunderland but I would not be surprised if he was back or available for selection for the Stoke game?
Even if the figures don't stack up over the season, when we have played, we've played much better using the 4231 system. Reading's gameplan was to get the ball forward and hope something fell for them. They set out to let us have most of the ball anyway, so not much need for the extra man. Sunderland will get the ball down and play if we don't stifle them. We don't want to be defensive, so we'll want to stifle them by playing our own game. They'll play a similar formation, so it's vital that we match up the numbers in midfield. 442 turned the Wigan game pear shaped, we were lucky to get a point out of Fulham and the first half against Spurs was truely tragic. Not much supporting the 442 either. With the 4231, we've still got the fluid front 4 and we still score goals, so I'm not sure what the problem is.
Bit out of sync with this reply ptf, but I'd like to respond and say that I agree that it is easy to get caught up with numbers. but I think that for me 442 represents a more rigid way of playing as the 44 does represent two lines even though the 2 can also mean 11. We clearly do have 2 defensive players in front of the 4 defenders and have done since Cork's return and our improvement in defending. But I think I'm starting to bore myself with this now, so I'm sure its best if I just shut up. Sorry.
I think Ramirez is more than capable of doing Lallanna's job so we shouldn't have to worry about missing Adam.
Ha, don't worry you're not boring me! I'd see the 4 man midfield as maybe more of a 22 if you know what I mean, Cork and Schneiderlin are both quite defensively-minded, so they'll sit much deeper than the wingers, who will get forward and support the strikers. Even in a 442 you could imagine Puncheon and Ramirez getting further forward than the deeper striker. Almost like a 4231, not that I need to labour the point about that!
I wandered about with a ruptured ACL for 2 weeks before deciding it didn't feel like it was going to get any better!
You're right there, you are definitely no physiotherapist. Seen a mate walk off fine and go home after football, only to go to hospital the next day to find out he'd ruptured his ligaments.
Lawro hasus with a 1-1 draw, his guests (Darren Farley and Paul Reid) have us down winning 7-4 and 4-0 which would be cool
He is usually more correct than his guests He had us down for a win against Reading. I think we will win, but would accept a draw....desperate to avoid a loss against one of our rivals. P.s. he has all the relegation candidates down for a loss...hope he's right on those.
This is why Saints (and probably most teams) put a brace on until they can assess the damage. I still believe that Lallana will be back sooner rather than later. The club said that Ramirez would be out for some time, but have been pretty silent about Adam. Adkins said he didn't want to set a date because any setback would disappoint the fans.
