Ta Chippy Not looking forward to West Brom now. We need to rest a couple of players, providing they're not injured but at the sametime we really need to win it otherwise we might find a few of the teams below us breathing down our necks.
At least Defoe is back and playing now meaning, if VdV is injured (and tbh he probably needs a rest), Defoe can fill in for a bit. We have cover for Parker in MF - although his presence will, obviously, be a huge loss.
I'd switch back to the old formation and rest Parker for West Brom. Put Modric back alongside Sandro, van der Vaart and Bale back in their normal positions and put either Kranjcar or Pienaar out wide. We really lacked width down the right today.
Pienaar or Rose for me. Kranjcar doesn't have enough of a presence in midfield, where WBA are very well equiped, and if VDV is playing aswell we could end up being overrun. I'm going to have to contradict what I said earlier and a say we should go 442. If we keeping playing VDV so soon after knocks we're going to end up with him fading badly like last season. I'd go front 6 of: Pienaar Sandro Modric Bale Defoe Ade
Noticed this as well - start of this season and last he was excellent scoring fairly regularly. Falls off for the middle of the season then picks up for the final run of games - if he's really matching himself from last season, he'll end up with about 14 league goals too. Rest him for WBA Harry!
Really should have made some changes before now,the Norwich game would have been ideal to rest some players.This game to me was always going to be harder as Swansea are very tough to beat at home.
Agreed. VDV urgently needs a rest, at least until the Everton game where I think we'll need a bit of wizardry picking their defence (something we've not been very good at in the past). Thought Bale looked a bit lethargic today, too. No need to panic, though. Le Scum are quite clearly an injury to RVP away from the bubble bursting, and with Gervinho and his forehead off to the ACON soon, we best get praying! Chelsea are up against Wolves Away next, which will be a tricky fixture. Then Sunderland visit Stamford Bridge- another potential banana skin. Arsenal now have back-to-back away games, against Fulham and Swansea respectively. As we know, our 'Bald Assassin Extraordinaire' Martin Jol will no doubt 'do the business' for us and take some points off them, whilst Swansea- as we just discovered- have more than enough to cause a 'poo-squat' moment. As for Liverpool...I don't see the need to discuss their 'designs' on the top 4 anymore.
Can anyone tell me why our players are tired? They've had so much rest its ridiculous...they've had no European football, so 6-8 games less than others around us and we're tired! . This crimbo period is the busiest they've been all season, I'm very surprised at the lethargic effort today.
The players that looked tired have played virtually every league game though or have suffered injuries, Notso. Everyone else has been rotating.
Bale, for example, plays the full 90 in all of Wales' games and is running all game, just as he is for Spurs. It's a miracle Benny still has so much energy, he's played more than anyone this season. With some of our players they're simply not particularly fit. VDV isn't a player that can play 2/3 times a week as the PL is too high paced, this season the only games he's missed have been through injury and he always starts when he comes back, even when he hasn't had a full training session and is a doubt.
I know PNP, but they've been rotating because of the CL, yet Nani and Silva have still played 25 games. Our players have had a week between matches most of the time, I'm just not buying into mate, they shouldn't be that tired.
I'd certainly go for that - we need to play to our strengths, while freshening things up so a couple of players get a much-needed rest. Pienaar and Walker could be quite useful down the right for a few games.
Draw was a fair result, and we looked a bit tired, perhaps two away games in quick succession is the main, rather than the amount of games played over the season so far. We definitely missed Lennon today, but as with Chelsea there's no certainty we would have won with him, as Swansea, like Chelsea, played really well. We still can't force our way into the title race, but a defeat for Cty tomorrow, and we are finally in it. It's a big but though, (oo er missus Once again the calls for Pienaar to play allow me a wry smile, as according to some on here and elsewhere, he's a waste of space, tripe, ****, a waste of money and all the rest of it. I've defended Pienaar against such appalling name calling, but I'm not convinced he's worth starting v West Brom, IF Lennon can't. To me if VDV or Parker don't start, Defoe should. Yes there'll be a gap on the right, but we have to work our way round that.
