So if you were the gaffer, would you risk Bellamy tonight? His Physio has been in the news the last few days giving a little bit of information here and there and it definitely looks like Bellamy used his experience to come off in the first leg before any damage was done. With us playing at home, I'd be tempted to start Chopra and Bothroyd up front and bring CB on as an impact sub if things aren't going our way. There's no way in hell that CB is going to want to miss out on a playoff final against Swansea so he and DJ are going to be unlikely to take a risk imo.
For Bellamy to miss out on the p/o final at Wembley, first we've got to get there. If he is fit enough to play he should start - the bench option would be a mistake. Given the closeness of our recent games with Reading, if we go a goal down (or even 2) early on, there'll be no way back. The crowd (yes us!) will go quiet and the tension will add pressure to the players and stifle our normal game - we've seen it all before. Start this one with our best 11 and take the game to them - if that doesn't work, we wont deserve to get there and Bellamy wont have to worry about not playing at Wembley.
I agree. If he's fit to start then he should. Psychologically, it could have an effect on the players too (how many of us didn't think 'Oh ****...' when he went off on Fri) admittedly by that time the game was 'up to speed' and the players focused. I know these guys are Professionals but not having him in the starting line-up could have an unspoken negative affect...and also the opposite for Reading. Either way it's not gonna help the old ticker
I'm confident that any team that we put out tonight will win the game to be honest. I think that there's enough motivation in the fact that Swansea have already booked their place at Wembley and everyone, the manager included is playing for their job. Let's face it, if we lose tonight then DJ is going to be pushed out either by disgruntled fans or an ambitious chairman. I'm not saying that I agree with this, but it's what I think will happen if we do lose. If DJ goes, I think we can expect to see the squad pretty much disassembled and built again from scratch so underperformance can't be tolerated. Jay needs to really put himself in the shop window too if he hasn't already found a new club because he's been playing like he's somewhere else anyway for the last few months. We have enough of a squad here to be able to cope without Bellamy, as we've shown a fair few times over the season - so I think that the only real loss would be his silky skills as opposed to the motivation that he'd provide.
I don't think motivation from Bellamy comes into it, in fact I never mentioned it. If the 11 that DJ decides to start out there aren't motivated enough by the occasion, they must be zombies and should be discarded at the earliest opportunity. The only thing I'm suggesting is that we need to get to Wembley before worrying about it. Putting the best 11 out there to get past Reading is the right way.
I totally agree about only playing Bellamy if he's fully fit and capable of doing the job - anything else wouldn't be the thing to do. It would probably be equivelent to playing a half fit over-wieght Chopra..........wait a minute though.
Master Bate how well did Bell-end do ? or didn't he play, never mind love better luck next year! ............. please log in to view this image
