3-5-2 again. He needs to consistently pick the same 11 or as near as possible. A settled 11 will bring results and most importantly points.
Sorry Bob but you've (well not you obviously!) got to love Brucey. Sure he's made a few cock ups along the way, and (too) oft repeated them, but he's diamond geezer as far as I'm concerned, and we've had some proper twats of managers down the years to gauge him by. I honestly feel - with admittedly not much to back it up - that Steve Agnew, probably as nice a fella as he was, was possibly in little bit in awe of Brucey and his achievements and not a strong enough character. In Mike Phelan I feel that we have the polar opposite, and I'm assuming that was integral to the three we saw playing at the back on Saturday, and to the exclusion of Brucey's captain. I'm honestly hoping that Brucey & Phelan are the modern version of Clough & Taylor, and who's to say that they won't be, and if it turns out that they are...
I'll double the amount of beer i have to buy Lincoln if that happens Stan!! Joint top scorer this calendar year. FACT
Im hoping he plays two forwards who are proper forwards Aluko comes looking for the ball to deep which at home is no good, at times he has great trickery but is not consistent enough. Ramirez for me has a nice touch but is to lightweight. Tomorrow night we need battlers people who when going in for the tackle win the ball not pulling out of any 50-50s. For that reason I don't like Ramirez and Huddlestone in the same team. They have a very quick forward line on the break so pace will be needed at the back so if he plays the same three centre backs then the full backs are going to have to cover. They will come fired up hopefully we will it's a massive game, the crowd could make the difference.
I think he will start as a 352 and the two forwards will be Jelly and N'Doye. I don't any other changes other than those two.
Like it did when we kept the same team for the home games against WBA and Leicester, following good away performances at Everton and Sunderland respectively?
This ^^^^^^^^ lets not make the same mistake again please. Horses for courses, you pick a team to win a game. What works in one game doesn't mean it's right for the next one.
We always seem to do **** against Villa. 1987 was the last time I think we beat them under that promising start from Horton’s team. Vaguely recall a Simod Cup match in the late ‘80s – think we ended up with 9 men on the pitch and they sneaked a late goal to win. Sure they had Paul McGrath, David Platt and Alan McNally playing too. Teams would even field full strength teams in that competition back then.
That was early in the season. Hot Summers day. They had a good side & I think they ended up going straight back up after being relegated. The highlight of the game for me (apart from the result & being able to take the piss out of one of their players I knew) was what appeared to be the whole of Bunkers chanting "Nigel, Nigel, Nigel ..........." in the campest of voices whilst making limp wristed gestures towards him as he approached his goal (maybe the beginning of the second half).
There was nothing wrong with the Leicester performance at home. We didn't win, but we dicked them and should have won. Football is sometimes like that. We have better players available to us and other teams have demonstrated the value of having a settled side, Burnley for example. They are picking up points and have overturned a 7 point defecit. A chopped and changed side, will like the selection be incoherent, inconsistent and it won't deliver the points required. I guess it depends what you want for the club, doesn't it?
I think the defenders all earned their places for tomorrow, but changes up front would be less disruptive than changes at the back. If Jelavic is fit then he must start.
We did alright at the end against Leicester, when the strikers came off the bench! We must learn our lessons from the WBA and Leicester home games. Aluko and Ramirez as a front two is never going to win you a home game at this level. Aluko was the only poor performer at Man City, and he's been the same in almost every game this season, we have quality on the bench who can play up front. It seems mental to me to not use it and persist with Aluko. We'll all wonder why we lost 1-0 with Aluko playing the entire game with his back to goal. I agree we've made too many changes too often this season, but this time it's called for.
I think there is a cleverness in making tactical changes to confound the opposition, but I also believe there is a clever-dick-ness in making changes that are supposed to confound the opposition, but, in reality, only serve to confound your own players. Be smart and make sure you get the best out of your own team before niggling at the other. In Bruce We trust. UTT
I think Jelavic is nailed on to start. Bruce said of him at the weekend that as his knee is at the moment he can't play two games in 3 days. In other words he's not going to be played against Citeh because he's nailed on for Villa. As for his partner, Bruce could throw a huge hail-Mary and play N'Doye, but I think he'll go for Ramirez again as he, like others, produced the goods against Citeh.
