--------Boruc Clyne Yoshida Forren Shaw ----Cork Schneiderlin Puncheon Lambert Lallana -------Rodriguez
This would be my preferred line-up against your boys: .....................Krul Debuchy...Taylor...Colo...Santon ............Cabaye.....Tiote Ben Arfa....Sissoko....Gouffran .................Cisse Although Pardew is bound to find a way of getting Jonas and Ameobi in there.
Should be a cracking atmosphere for this one. I'm hoping the Toon Army will make enough noise to lift the players. Head says 2-2 sounds quite likely. Heart hoping we'll sneak it in a 3-2 thriller! No offence.
I am delighted you are playing in the Europa League a few days beforehand. Pardew has got a bit of a dilemma on his hands - does he play a full strength team against Metalist and rest players against us or does he do a Wenger and bring on his key players later in the game against Metalist and hope for the best?
Bit of both. Some players are in eligible for Europa (Debuchy & Gouffran) while Ben Arfa probably isn't ready to start just yet. I think he will play a fairly strong team in Europa, but the league has to be top priority. Can see him resting of or two other first team starters midweek, with the likes of Simpson, Mbiwa, Anita, Marveaux, Obertan, Ameobi all getting games in Europa. At least I hope so. But Pardew has a mind of his own when it comes to selections & tactics.
I'm torn as to what we should do with Lambert. On the one hand it'd be useful to have him up top keeping Coloccini busy and creating space for runners like Puncheon and Lallana, but on the other hand he could do a good job dropping deeper and fighting Tiote for possession in the middle. I like him as a playmaker so I'd be tempted to go with the latter, and it helps that Jay Rod is looking more and more comfortable as the leading striker.
Sorry Rickie desperately wants to score his 100th goal for Saints against the manager who signed him for Saints.
-----------Boruc-------------- Clyne Yoshida Hooiveld Shaw ----------Schneiderlin---------- --------Cork----------Davis------- Rodriguez------------------Lallana --------------Lambert-------------- Subs: Davis, Richardson, Forren, JWP, Puncheon, Ramirez, Guly. 2-2; goals from Rodriguez and Puncheon.
Isn't it really nice to be discussing competition for places rather than injury problems. I didn't see a scenario where Lallana would struggle to get into the starting line up at the start of the season!
Same goes, we finally have an almost fully fit squad to select from (assuming no disasters in the midweek Europa match of course).
Must say, our 2-0 win for me was the best I had seen the team play under NA. Completely bypassed a stronger side by high tempo play and never really giving them time to settle. Going for the same score for us again. Fonte has been backin training for a week now so the CB selection should be interesting
A penalty could be a tough watch, even with our incredible record. Le Tiss went into a game on 99 goals for us & missed his one & only spot kick. He later in the match scored his 100th goal, but that often gets forgotten because of the miss. Would be pretty ironic for history to repeat.
