Time to drop Soldado again, I think. His inability to run across his marker to the near post is so frustrating, instead he seems to want the cutback which is hardly ever on. Defoe looks to drop off for a cutback too but I reckon if he was told to attack the near post for crosses he would. I actually thought Soldado was good for the most part yesterday but he's not getting the things done that we need of a striker, like getting on the end of crosses and scoring
These things are never considered at the end of a season. The first game after a team drops its manager they usually do well - hence the team that has to play them will do less so. There are all sorts of quirks like this which are obviously put under the banner of "these things even themselves out over a season" when clearly they do not, and are even more important when there are only a couple of points between teams at the end. Another one is playing a team that are just about to go into a cup so field a weakened team. Pool have benefited from this twice in recent years - they played Chelski just before they went into the CL final, and most recently played Swansea who were just about to go into the League Cup final, getting 3 points and an increased goal difference from each.
I think it might be worth leaving Soldado there then, if Lennon gets a run of games on the right, he is Mr. Cutback, he's had to put up with Mr. Cut-in up till now.
We played wigan just before they played united in a league cup final back in 2006 and were lucky to get a draw and we played west ham before their fa cup final in 2005 and lost so it dont always go the way you suggested
Sorry, not a post about the upcoming game, but have trawled through the threads trying to find a comparison that someone was doing to last years games etc with a table, it may have been called something like the hunt for fourth, I last remember seeing it about the time of the Everton game. Can anyone tell me what this was called and if it is still being updated? It was good when I could say to people in the pub that we were up on last season. I'm thinking that, that is no longer the case, but be interested to see.. I also imagine that the goons are now up on last season. As for the game, I'd try swopping Townsend for Chadli but otherwise unchanged, I agree with the above that should be last chance for Soldado. Would like Lamela to come on. Really hope we can build some momentum.
The march to the Champions league thread my friend. Apologies for not updating it, we've suddenly become quite busy at work so not had quite so much time to play with spreadsheets. Will try to update the Manc games in the next few days.
I love the intro its fantastic, don't worry about a new manager being in charge, he has picked the team for the last 2 games and nothing has changed, we are useless, spurs to win 3-1 with defoe to score against us again, even carlton cole scores against us, we are by far the worse team in the prem, you will see on Wednesday, I believe and I am not alone in this, ffc are already relegated
Nah it's Tottenham you're talking about here. If anyone can lose to a team who think they are relegated it's us. Hangeland could be back, Berba on form, Scotty, Adel and Bent all have a point to prove. It was Fulham who cost us CL football at the lane last year.
I think Fulham are there for the taking and nothing less than a win would be ideal to be honest. Lloris, Walker, Kaboul, Chiriches, Vertonghen Sandro, Dembele Lennon, Chadli, Townsend Defoe Paulinho should be dropped for this game, think his performances have been well below par. Chadli impressed me in the Utd game so I'd like to see him stay in the side, with Townsend coming in to play on the left and Chadli taking a number 10 role. Defoe deserves a shot at starting too, Soldado just can't seem to score and Defoe should be hungry and fresh. Presume Lamela was injured for Utd(?), if he's fit then I hope he can make the bench.
Think we should start with the same team as Sunday-they played ok and we need consistency before chopping and changing again. Paulinho might play less pretty football than Lamella but he gets stuck in.
Paulinho was really good against United, surprised you want him dropped. I liked Chadli against United but he didn't add much in terms of goal threat or creating chances so I don't see much point playing him in a game where we really did to win.
It's funny as when Redknapp was manager the general view was he never rotated enough. Now we have a manager who likes to rotate, the general view is we need to play the same 11. The perfect way would be in between each style of management but at least Redknapp had a clear idea of his best team. Avb still doesn't know his best 11 and with the added pressure of trying to get new players settled, it all looks too much for him.
A lot of WHL would disagree with you on that mate. AVB actually got booed a little from some idots when he took Lennon off and the consensus among many (myself included on that part) was that it should have been Paulinho. Must have given away about 10 passes, lost possession a lot too, he done well to win the free-kick that lead to the goal but that was his only meaningful contribution in my opinion.
I am prepared to be patient with Paulinho because he tries the unexpected difficult pass, many of which fail, but it these type of passes that will produce the chances and the more he tries the more chance of team mates picking upon it.
