Bit late as it was discussed a few pages back, but Wikipedia says that Lovren's played both right back and left back before. I'm not saying Fox shouldn't play, but I would have normally said that Yoshida and Lovren should be our first choice centre backs, and with Fonte's strong pre-season performances I didn't want to leave him out. Hooiveld and Fox cannot play together, however.
This is not one of those things however, as I've said before during his early time at Lyon he played across the back four, I've seen him play at right, left and centreback. He's not an ideal option at full-back, but he is capable of doing a job defensively there.
Someone asked Luke if it was all good news about the injury, he didn't reply but he did favourite the tweet.
I really think that Jos Hooiveld is gonna surprise you and a lot of guys on this forum. I am convinced that he is playing together with Lovren. Don't know what is going to happen with the LB but the centre is Obvious. For me it is obvious looking at the starting positions of last saturday. Don't understand why a lot of people on here are writing him off. Second halve last season he started every game, even when Yoshida was back again. Don't think Jos deserves that.
I think Poch prefers him to Yoshida as well. I prefer him to Fonte or Yoshida too BUT when Fox is playing next to him something doesn't click. Maybe Yoshida and Fonte are better at making up for Fox but Jos is better when not stretched? Would love Guly to be starting but can't see it. My team: Clyne/Chambers-----Lovren-----Hooiveld------Fox -------------------Cork------------------------- ------Schneiderlin---------------Wanyama------- Lallana-----------Lambert-------------------JRod
Yoshida and Fonte are better than Hooiveld, and I think Lovren played better when he was lcb anyway. Hooiveld is strong in the air, but lacks speed, agility and is a very poor marker of his man even from set pieces. Any decent quick striker will destroy Hooiveld. I think Yoshida can have an excellent season as he is clearly a very talented defender.
Defence is a team effort. Whilst we can pick holes in Fonte, Jos and even Yoshida, if they are well schooled and the midfield do their bit, shortcomings can be overcome. Theoretically!
Pretty much universal agreement to the midfield and forwards. Our only concern is how to cover Luke/Clyne. Let's hope at least one of them makes it. I'd be tepmted to play Jose with Maya and put Lovren at RB.
Why don't we just put, say, guly or gaston at LB? I mean why give them positions at all? Let them run wild and run free! Im sure lallana could chip in at CB, why not?!
I like the idea of feral footballers...Boruc would be the grumpy old male that the rest of the herd avoid.
I wouldn't be so confident, he's tweeted positively about injuries in the past and Fox has still been in the side ahead of him. Basically he usually seems more positive about his fitness than the club staff!
Adkins remarked once that players always tried to pull a fast one and pretend they were fit...obviously never met Marion Pahars.
Yes but if he's even vaguely positive about his injury (Which a smiley face and thumps up doesn't necessarily tell us), then at least it can't be as serious as it could have been. It'll be a shame to miss him to start out with but when we're talking about ligaments I'm fairly happy about only losing him for say, a couple of weeks compared to the possibility of almost the entirety of the season. I don't know why the idea of players being capable of playing multiple positions is so ridiculous to you, you act as if each player is branded on their forehead with 'CB' or 'LM' etc. You can perfectly reasonably argue that Fox despite his shortcomings is a better option than moving Clyne or Lovren or whoever out there but just because they are nominally assigned as other positions doesn't mean they don't have the capability to play there.
