Would probably make one or two changes from the Liverpool game. Boruc Chambers - Fonte - Lovren - Shaw Cork - Morgan S.Davis - Gastón - Lallana Rodriguez Think the way would set up allows it to be quite fluid in terms of the formation, Davis could drop deeper and act as a third central midfielder, with Ramirez and Lallana moving wide and pushing further up to support JRod.
would definitely like Gaston in for this. Think Palace will sit back n we'll have a load of posession n struggle to break them down and at the moment think Gaston is our best bet at finding a defence splitting pass. Rickie to make way n Jay to go up top. Otherwise same team.
15:00 Crystal Palace v Southampton Referee : Howard Webb. Assistants : S Ledger & R West 4th Official: R East.
Poor Davis, dropped and doesn't make the bench. He's our essential utility midfielder, I would not drop him. ------------------------Boruc------------------- Clyne--------fonte-------lovren-----shaw ------spider----------big vic--------------- Davis------------lallana--------gallagher ------------------rodders---------------------- Bench: Davis, yoshida, chambers, cork, Gaston, Rickie, reed. Rickie needs a rest I think. Gaston to come on for Davis. If comfortable bring on reed.
-------------------Boruc-------------- ---Clyne----Yoshida---Lovren-----Shaw--- -----------Morgan---Wanyama------------ ---Lallana--------Ramirez--------Rodriguez--- ----------------Lambert--------------- Subs: Davis, Chambers, Fonte, Cork, S. Davis, JWP, Gallagher.
Davis hasn't been playing all that well in his best position recently so I certainly wouldn't play him on the wing. Gallagher definitely can't do that.
Might as well do mine: Boruc Clyne Fonte Lovren Shaw Wanyama Lallana Schneiderlin Cork Rodriguez Lambert
Hah! Interesting. I used to know Roger East very well, in fact I have in the house, somewhere, a video of the Commercial Houses Cup Final which we won 2-1 and he was playing, probably one of the last times I played football with him before he took up refereeing. I also saw the first official game he ever refereed which was at Whiteparish on a Sunday morning in the Salisbury Sunday League. But I digress, having known him for a very long time when I was younger, I know for a fact he is a Saints fan. He used to go to the Dell and he used to live in Romsey. I bet he'd deny it now but he is. I know my mates gave him some fearful stick for being the linesman that missed the offside goal Everton scored in the 2-2 tie the season we were relegated from the Premiership.
Interesting that lots of posters are going for Clyne at RB, I thought Chambers was our best player on Saturday?
Game in which we intend to be pretty much constantly on the front foot, and it's against his old club.
I would drop Fonte because he was pretty awful against Liverpool. He dallied on the ball which allowed Suarez to dispossess him, he gave away a penalty and generally got torn a new one. Now I know he was facing the best strike force in the PL and the second best in Europe (only behind Real's front three) but he was very careless at times. Lovren wasn't an awful lot better but he's the better player so give Yoshida a go alongside Lovren.
Not really the wing, one of the 3 behind the striker. He slots back on the right side when we go 4-3-3 doesn't he? OK shift lallana left and Gallagher behind rodders. Regardless of position this is my team.
Problem is that Yoshida plays New Zealand at about 0130 GMT on Wednesday. Probably won't be too fresh.
Once again it seems you were watching a different game to the rest of us. Fonte didn't dally on the ball, he was on the deck when Lallana kicked it into him. He also made several good tackles, as well as the vital interception early on in the match where otherwise Sturridge would have put it on a plate for Suarez. Lovren on the other hand was definitely off the pace and almost certainly at fault for their second goal. Sorry to harp back to the Liverpool game.
