please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Dnipro V Spurs Thur. 20th Feb. 6pm ko. UK time. TV :- ITV4/HD Having breezed through the group stage, we now find ourselves faced with the business end of the competition. The early rounds tested the away travellers who would have been hoping for reprieve, but ladyluck knees them in the groin again with a trip to pretty much the centre of Ukraine... The Dnipro Arena is less than 10yrs old, and holds 30k so its a decent facility at least... please log in to view this image Dnipro, pronounced Da-nip-row, I make a point of this as our resident halfwits Aaron Lennon and Kyle Walker thought we were referring to a line of Japanese spectators, only to find they are our next opponents. They are currently managed by a former halfwit of ours Juande Ramos, probably misqoted with his latest ramble about money over trophys but he's not far wrong. They qualified as r/up to Fiorentina and are currently 3rd in their domestic league. Only chance left for some tin, so hope we take it seriously, out of the other cups, I really don't see why not...and prove Juande wrong. Its also a chance to look at the player Liverpool wanted to sign at the last minute but failed, Yevhen Konoplyanka. COYS!
It would be nice to get a win out there and still rest some players. Suggestion is that Sherwood intends to take everyone available, though. It's a trophy that I'd be very happy to win, but some of our squad players need games and some of our first XI could do with a rest. Chadli, Soldado, Sigurdsson, Naughton, Fryers, Friedel and Defoe should all be in contention. Mixed feelings about Sandro playing any part, if he's available.
They played for both Juande Ramos (managed both ) Pint in the Bill Nick for anyone who can think of another?
According to Physio room Sigurdsson is injured? If so i would go with: Friedel Fryers Dawson Kaboul Naughton Chadli Capoue Sandro Townsend Eriksen Soldado If Sandro isn't fit I would go with Paulinho. And if Defoe is fit I would be tempted to play him alongside Soldado. I think Kaboul could do with the extra match after ebing out for so long. Maybe a half each for him and Vertonghen? It's quite hard to get excited by this competion given the other European fixtures this week!!
"It's quite hard to get excited by this competion given the other European fixtures this week!!" I am extremely concerned about the Europa claiming another long-term crock just like Rose.
Sandro and Rose played in an U21 game today: Lineup: Archer, A McQueen, Rose, Veljkovic, Ball, Fryers, McEvoy, Sandro, Coulibaly, Kane, Coulthirst. Coulibaly and Coulthirst put us 2-0 up at HT. Sandro was removed after 51 minutes, then Rose followed on 64 minutes. Ball then gave away a penalty and got sent off two minutes after that and we lost 5-2! Wouldn't expect to see either taking part in the Ukraine.
I really hope that is the case. We badly need him for the run in and Soldado has a point ot prove and has done well in Europe so far for us.
it will give him some game time to and if he can get a goal,we should see the confidence start to return
Piccies are gettin a pain ye mods!...any news? Re-posted and hopefully on view, if anyone can't see them let me know (I don't want to know if you can).
The odd thing is that they show up if you Reply With Quote and Go Advanced when you got the three dots, for some reason. Weird. Not had a problem with this thread, though.
Interesting Dnipro have a picture of a boat in their badge...seeing as they're 500 miles from the nearest sea!
Airport transfers are very scarce, so the itinerary did say the plane goes direct to the hotel.... please log in to view this image
Having given this some thought (always a dangerous practice), I'd like to see us starting nobody we plan to start against Norwich. It looks like CJ has much the same idea. The reason is that as it happens there's very little drop off from our first eleven to our second--or could be, if our second eleven plays up to its potential. And we won't find out how good they are unless we play them. The way I see it, we don't have much less chance of winning the Europa playing second choice players, and we have a much better chance of getting a CL spot. If you think that's too cautious, I could argue, tenuously, that it is daring to play an entirely different team than the one you use in the PL. The greater point for me is that if you lose out on the last day of the season partly because of a major distraction in the Europa, you don't want to do the same thing two years in a row. If we get to the semis, maybe even the quarters, I'd consider putting first choice players out there. Till then, play the players who need minutes. Friedel Fryers Dawson Chiriches (unless hurt) Naughton Chadli Sandro Townsend Eiriksen Defoe Soldado If we're going to play Eiriksen against Norwich (I think we should), then start Kane as a midfielder in his place.
Lloris, Kaboul, JV, Walker, Rose, Dembele, Paulinho, Lennon and Ade should all be left at home to prepare for Norwich, I`m sure we can put out a team capable of getting a result out of who is left. Taking a full squad on a 3500 mile round trip a couple of days before a crucial PL match would be madness in my opinion, the Norwich game is more important.
