Team vs W.B.A.

[sloth]

Very harsh on Kranjcar there Sloth. He's no slower and slightly more agile than Huddelstone for example, but I wouldn't really want him in cm either. He isn't very slow though. He's not Lennon or Bale quick, but he's not Corluka or Hudd slow either. I do think that in the right set up, he could play either side of the attacking three in our new 433 formation (he is actually pretty two footed, more so than VDV) and I also reckon he could play the VDV role in a 4411 and centrally in the attacking 3 of a 4231.

I personally would love to see him given 30 minutes for a tiring Adebayor in a game too, because I think he is reasonably strong on the ball, has good vision and passing and is a very decent finisher. Qualities a false No.9 needs.

I also think his tackling is OK for a player of his type. In 2009-10 for example when he stood in for Modric and Lennon he made nearly twice as many tackles as Modric and Lennon in similar time spans.

I think he's much slower and much weaker in the tackle than Huddlestone. I think he's as slow if not slower than Corluka. I place him in the Peter Crouch category slowness.

Tackling wise he has no craft whatsoever, he tends to square up and stick a leg out, but if he's by-passed he simply gives up, probably because he's so slow :wink: Basically he's a bit of a passenger when we don't have the ball, more of a passenger than, say, Huddlestone is.

For a tall guy he's useless in the air and a bit of a pussy, jumping with his shoulders and not his head (probably with his eye's closed most of the time, though that's just my prejudice obviously Has he ever scored a goal with his head?).

All of that said, there are a few positions for a player of his type in a side of our quality, it's more that I've seen people trying to slot him into totally inappropriate roles in incorrect formations in this thread.

 

[MrWoolley]

With Cheltenham at the weekend I can't see the big need to rest our big guns tonight. West Brom were the first team to stop Man City from scoring this season, so they can obviously defend and need to be taken seriously.

 

[Lilbaz]

Then that renders this thread redundant, for surely everyone here agrees (or thereabouts) on our strongest line-up if we do not take into account fitness levels.

The problem is that we don't know the fitness levels. Bale looked shattered against Chelsea, yet the Norwich game he was outstanding. Harry see's them everyday in training so will know if they are not fit or tired.
We can speculate who we'd play if say Parker was still injured, or that blah blah should start because he was great in blah blah game. Or someone has come back from injury.
We are not Barcelona, we can't just chop and change because we feel like it and still expect to win, this is the Prem we need our best 11 playing at their best to have a chance of winning. Our B team have played quite a few games this season in the Europa and CC and none have really done enough to deserve a start in my eyes.

 

[boxbat]

With Cheltenham at the weekend I can't see the big need to rest our big guns tonight. West Brom were the first team to stop Man City from scoring this season, so they can obviously defend and need to be taken seriously.

I guess the argument is that resting players isn't just a benefit in future, it's a benefit now (i.e. a 'weakened' squad might perform better in this game than the first choice 11 who by most accounts looked knackered at Swansea).

 

[ThorntonSpur]

olsen and brunt out tonight long doubtful

 

[StanSpur]

I don't want to rest anyone. We need our strongest team out there to take advantage of the poor results this week. A win puts us 6 point ahead of Arsenal and 5 above Chelsea with a game in hand on both whilst putting us within a game of the Manchester clubs. This is no time to bring in players coming back from injury or the likes of Pinaar and Kranky. I have a sneeky feeling Liverpool will get something from City tonight and we have to be all over that.

Just hope we have an atmosphere tonight as we tend to get a bit quiet of late in the lesser games like the visit of sunderland. When we make noise you can see the players take it up a gear so we need to have some chelsea noise tonight - that was a good atmosphere!

 

[ThorntonSpur]

i would expect to see king playing tonight as he would not play against cheltenham

friedel

walker kaboul king bae

lennon sandro/parker modric bale

vdv
adebayor

subs gallas parker/sandro kranjcar defoe rose pav

 

[bubble07]

I dont think Redknapp has ever dropped Gallas. Will be interesting who he selects if King returns

 

[WestBelfast Spurs]

Brad

Walker Gallas Kaboom Benny

Sandro aka Chuck Norris

VDV Modric Bale

Ade & JD

4-1-3-2 lets get some goals

 

[disciple]

save king for city away.

 

[Kendall]

Well well. Heavy legged, poor performance and two fresh injuries.

Hope you're all happy!

 

[The Apprentice]

Lucky we got a week off.

 

[Kingellesar]

Well well. Heavy legged, poor performance and two fresh injuries.

Hope you're all happy!

Did Kranjcar do enough for you to justify wanting him AND Pienaar to start?

I'd rather be sat here with 3 points than knowing that Bale/VdV/Ekotto all got a nice night off, bless em.

We surely must freshen up.

Friedel

Walker Kaboul King Rose

Pienaar Sandro Modric Kranjcar

Adebayor Defoe​

Also the two injuries, one of them was Gallas which was expected, he is going to pick up a few knocks this season but we have Dawson on the way back so no big deal. Sandro the other, you had in your team selection anyway:shrug: