Ah, okie dokie! In that case, I disagree with you. the basis of the team is okay, but I'd drop Dirk and shift Steven out to right midfield and bring in Spearing. Not creative, I know but he's growing into the Lucas role and will have better discipline that Steven has positionally. We should use Steven's great delivery and late movement into the box to attack the back stick with the ball coming in from the left. Spearing has the energy to perform the screening role and it'd free up Hendo to make supporting runs from midfield that he should make part of his game. For the bigger games, I think your personnel make sense, as Dirk scores the 'big' goals, but I'd be tempted to go 4-2-3-1 for the big games...
I think it will be 4-5-1. Reina Johnson,Skrtel,Agger,Enrique Kuyt,Adam,Henderson,Gerrard,Downing Carroll up front on his own. I'd rather see Kelly at right back aswell and play with 2 up front but I can't see it happening.
If we can win all our remaining games at Anfield and win four games away we can finish in the top four.
Suspect Stevie may be on bench at best as rumours are he has a niggle which means, we should defo have front 4 of, Downing Bellamy Carroll Kuyt
do you think gerrard would actually go out there? I kind of don't disagree that it'd be good but i can't see it. I sort of see stevie in the scholes role, no legs and just moving 10 yards left or right to make passes. I've looked at spearing and really I think hendo can do better than him but would not want both guys o nthe pitch. I think... spearings not given us 5 games to judge him due to suspension and injury ..... win all our anfield games and then 4 away? at home we've played 11 won 4 drawn 7... you expect us to get 8 wins. = won 12 drawn 7 = 43 points away we've played 11, won 5 drawn 1 lost 5. you expect 9 wins one draw = 30 thats 73 points which could be indeed 4th place. but..... you want us to win 12 out of 16 games. or in other words beat Tottenham H Everton H Arsenal H Wigan H Aston Villa H Fulham H West Brom H Chelsea H then win half of: Wolves A Man United A Sunderland A QPR A Newcastle A Blackburn A Norwich A Swansea A that is unfortunately a bit optimistic.
A know it is tough, but Mancity have 100 percent home record in the league this season. Our home record is terrible.If our away record can compensate for our home record in the remaing games..so be it. We need to be optimistic.
Re Stevie - Beckham spent an entire career without an ounce of pace, never made it to the byeline, yet delivered devastating crosses. Gerrard's delivery from out there is pretty much unmatched within the team, so I don't see the pace thing as an issue. As for Spearing and Hendo, I see Spearing sitting and Hendo being the box-to-box man. His passing is very good and he can thread a few through, plus he's got a decent shot (if a bit wayward). Spearing is more limited, but what I have seen of him, he's good enough to do it and he's constantly improving... ... Points total wise, the away games are arguably more winnable than those at Anfield...
thats very true but he was always put wide right so hr question is would stevie go back out there ego et al? I think hendos game suits DM more than attacking. his pases are not that incisive are they but he's got the engine.. lucas keeps it simple and short and is so effective and of course the world lauds the londoners but especially square ball parker... i think hendo could just be the next alonso if he learns the role and grows into it... I think his engine is that good. imagine... lucas = mascherano, hendo = alonso and just maybe we might get some yeard sout of suarez and steling perhaps as well... I dunno... players just need to step up to the mark now... especially carroll if he wants a cup final starting berth
ok so the games we've got. tottenham, arsenal and chelsea... all "top 6" of whatever the press want to call it unitl the big london teams get top 4. Everton derby. thats half the games we need to win? I just can't see us getting 70 points... BUT chelsea and arsenal have been poor so where there's life there's hope.
The glaring fallacy about all of this is that 65 points or thereabouts will suffice for 4th this year. All the teams in contention for 4th are capable of dropping points all over the place - nobody is consistent enough to require the 70 points we've seen in recent seasons
want to bet about 70 points? i think someone will make that..... but you could be right... chelsea only have 6 more points today so they wuold only have 5 maches out of thier remaining to fial to win in to get 70... I'd still fancy a flutter on it though
