It's a massive risk to bench Vertonghen for this one, in my opinion. Wimmer looked to be his match in his short stint in the last campaign, but he's struggled in this one. It's a key game in the season, so I'm hoping that he can rise to the occasion. Eriksen's needed to be left out for quite a while, though. He's been a passenger in recent games and even his set-pieces have gone to pot. It does leave us with plenty of options from the bench, too.
Unfortunately equal points is decided by results against eachother rather than goal difference, meaning we can't finish above Leverkusen unless we have more points.
Didn't know that. I thought rules as stupid as that we only reserved for irrelevant tournaments like the Europa. Ho hum.
According to 5Live, Mahrez has found Vardy with just ONE pass in their last SEVEN ENTIRE MATCHES together. Flash, pan, etc.
I actually like the rule. It means that if there's a side that has nothing to play for that gets spanked 8-0 in the last game then it doesn't effect things as much. In a 6 game group it makes sense but I think in a 38 game league, like La Liga, it's stupid.
You're right, but the flip side is that a team can play 5 incredible games in a group stage, have one bad day at the office due to injuries/suspensions etc, and end up missing out based on a head-to-head record that ignores their effort in 5/6 of their games. Huge scorelines are a rarity in the CL beyond teams like Barca, Real and Bayern - i.e. teams who are going to qualify anyway. Once you get down to our strata of club, they become so few and far between that GD makes sense as an averaged-out reflection of performance across all 6 games.
That does make the most sense. The other possibility I can think of is a 4-2-3-1 with Winks partnering Wanyama, Son on the right (doubt that, since he created two from the left Saturday) and either Alli or Dembele in the middle.
It should be a 2 leg knock out competition. It's always good to have two legs in a football cup competition. Saves all that hopping
The mood on here is disconcertingly optimistic. Or are we all typing whilst sitting on the loo? @remembercolinlee get your arse down here to dampen the mood!
Tis Drinkwater who finds Vardy with the hoofball - sorry - most precisionest passes ... in the world (since Hoddle retired) ,
I'm not feeling that optimistic, if that helps. The defence looks rather weak and Monaco are scoring a lot recently.
We used all our luck up on Saturday tbh. Lloris to concede at near post...Kane to rediscover his August stupor and son will forget he's a professional footballer...you heard it here first guys!!!
