I think the team has looked disjointed so far. For me, I think we should start with the following: -----------------Loris------------ Walker - Kaboul - Verts - Rose ----------Sandro - Paulinho Townsy ------ holtby ------ Chadders -------------- Bobby -------------- The bring Erik and Erik on around 60mins. Atm the team doesn't seem to have any rythm so I think the new(er) guys should be eased in.
Such a difficult call this, the 2 week break for us is a bit of a disaster imo with our players all over the world for 10 days. AVB may get one decent training session, but even that will probably have one or two suffering from travel still. Imo, thats way to little time to assess whether Eriksen or Lamela should start. If you consider the tie, a home game v Norwich, with all respect you'd like to think thats a game we should be taking 3pts from regardless of 'bogey' team. They've just picked up their first win so will be bouyant, but will approach our game defensively. You could view this as a test for AVB as to whether he's prepared to be adventurous or play safe. My view of him so far, is not in anyway a risk taker, so I expect a similar side to start, injuries permitting, with a look at one of them later on. i think its a crucial home game that will be under some scrutiny, a negative result could well start some negative press, then pressure starts to build. Pressure to maintain results while bedding in pretty much a new side is not ideal, but thats the choice our management have made, so lets see if they were right over the next few games. I've said already I wasn't expecting the scale of our summer overhaul, but it should give plenty to discuss and talk about.
although maybe he was alright afterwards. the radio commentary jumped to that game near the end and they said he was going off and it looked a bad one. maybe he recovered though cos he doesn't seem to be down as having been substituted.
Sky match report says Lombaerts, Fellaini and Defour were the three substituted so unless an injury happened after Belgium had made all their subs I can't see how he could be injured. Dembele came on for Defour in the 87th minute so it seems unlikely that Vertonghen got injured after that, and can't find any mention of it... http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/253623/commentary
I'd rather Holtby and Townsend start as they've both earned a chance, and Lamela and Eriksen might do better being eased in rather than thrown in. I also have my own hunch that while Eirksen might be our most talented acquisition, even better than Lamela, Holtby has a lot of mental strength, which may be at least as important. Having said that, this year AVB has thrown people in, including Paulinho, Chadli and Soldado, probably on the theory that it may make more sense to given them all as much game time together as possible.
I saw Vertonghen's after-match interview late last night. I can't remember a word of it but they don't normally do interviews if injured. I'm sure I would have remembered if he said he was injured.
Paulinho and Chadli had pretty much a full preseason with the squad and Soldado was much needed. I hope we play the players you suggested too. It'd be good for Lamela and Eriksen to get some game time off the bench, they won't have had many training sessions with the team when the Norwich game comes around.
I watched the last 15 minutes of Belgium's win over Scotland and Vertonghen finished the game. There was a bit of a rash challenge on him near the end, but I'm pretty sure that was before the 2nd goal and he carried on afterwards.
Ok smart arse, explain the comment please because it slips me. As for the match I want to see daylight which means a clear two goal win.
