Just a thought...

This is if, as has been rumoured, Cabaye and Marveaux are unavailable and Tiote recovers from injury.

I would personally go for the following starting line-up...

Krul
Simpson-Saylor-Coloccini-Santon
Raylor-Tiote-Guthrie-Jonas
HBA
Ba​

We all know how good Man City are going forward and that there best player, and in my opinion the best player in the league, is Silva. It will be him and one of Nasri and Milner on the wings, so we will need Jonas to work as hard as normal on one wing with the defensive aspect of the game. However we will need that on both wings. So in my opinion it will be best if we start Ryan Taylor on the right wing for a couple of reasons. He will work back and help Simpson with a very strong Man City left side and he will also be able to whip in some pin point crosses on his favoured right foot for Ba and it may give us more of a chance of nicking a goal in a very tough game.

What do you think? Shall we just keep the defense the same? Who would you start at right mid if there is no Marveaux or Obertan?

 

Agree except I would keep Raylor at Left Back, and I would maybe play Gosling RM. I'd try to keep our team as settled as possible for such a tricky game, where we'll have to be organised at the back.

 

Play Raylor at LB and Santon on right wing

 

From what I've seen, and what the foreign fans have been saying about him, he's very average in defense, but good going forward.

Perhaps we should convert him to a winger.

 

Woah!!! I had to check the OP there! Can't believe you've actually commented on someone elses thread!!

 

u mad bro?

 

You American, sir?

 

That could work well and we would also be able to keep the back five, I like your thinking

 

Maybe a ban has been put on him to stop him putting up more than 10 articles a day.

 

I'll play.. if Marvo/Cabaye are out..

Krul
Simpson Saylor Colo Raylor
Santon Tiote Guthrie Guti
HBA
Ba

 

Would make sense as he's right footed and primarily an attacking wingback.

 

I'll personally leave the formation, tactics and line up for Pardew

I'm pretty sure he'll pick the right one. Unless he plays Perch for some reason, y'know

 

Perch out on the right wing

 

If that happens, I'll blame you

 

Well why not.. surely he can't be worse than Guthrie on the wing? I swear he used to play there for Nottim Forest at times? He had good pace back then..

 

I do not understand why everyone is so keen to drop Best. Ba was distinctly the inferior striker against Everton; he hasn't got the same strength and aerial ability.

Personally I'd have Jonas and HBA on the wings, have them swap sides every so often to keep the defence on their toes. We can't afford to throw in Santon and move Raylor out of position, we'd just be inviting City onto us.
Hell, if necessary, stick Guthrie on the wing in the old Barton role.

 

Oh please no.. just no.

 

I don't like the fact that Pardew refuses to put HBA on the wing. However way to Man City, playing two strikers with HBA on the wing is suicidal! Clichy and Silva would have a field day down that wing and would constantly double up on Simpson. HBA wouldn't get back enough.

 

He used to play on the wing, he's been excellent in his last two games and we really are running out of options unless we want to hand a first start to Sammy.
Our options are:
Jonas/Guthrie
Jonas/HBA
Sammy/Jonas
Lover/Jonas
HBA/Jonas

I would say Jonas/Guthrie is a lot safer than some of the other options...

 

I would never move Raylor out of left-back position, I find him useless on the right wing to be honest.
In addition he's settling well there so leave him be and let him work on his partnership with Jonas.

I'd play this team:

Krul
Simpson Staylor Colo Raylor
Benny Guthrie Tiote Jonas
Best Ba

If you think about it Ben Arfa is a similar player to Obertan except probably not as quick and more skillful.
By playing him on the right wing I don't think we'd lack what Obertan has been suplying us with in the past few games, sure he'd probably cut inside much more but seeing how well the QPR 4-4-2 worked against City yesterday I think we should stick with this formation.