St. James' Park Sunday 28th September Kick-off 4.30pm Live on Sky Sports Will we make Lego Head cry again? Thoughts on the team line-up and formation / tactics?
Not confident we'll win. Best case scenario, we may get a draw. But my gut feeling is you'll do us. As the saying goes, styles makes fights and your style is our kryptonite. Doesn't help that aggressive, powerful runners like Joelinton and Gordon are back for you. If we'd beaten City, a draw at SJP would have been an ok result. But now that's not the case anymore. We need to somehow find a way to win, even though I don't believe we will.
You've got a very good squad this year. Strength in all positions now. Will be an interesting fixture.
Think we will try again with 541, there’s no way burn doesn’t walk straight back in. I don’t rate that tactic as has been proven by Amorim 2 in the middle is PL suicide. Personally think going 433 and just leave Burn out, or even trying 532 makes more sense as it’s less midfield disruption and gives Woltemade some support.
We do on paper, but personnel is only one aspect of it all. Tactics and matchups are a huge factor too. In previous games, we've struggled against your compact, aggressive mid-block out of possession. Your ability to block passing lanes, reduce space between the lines, transitioning fast when we turnover possession and overloading/exploiting the gaps when we commit fullbacks forward, is something we've not been able to find an answer to, It's going to be a real battle and we'll need to do better than we've done the last 2 years. I hope we're up for it, but not convinced.
