What's our best XI?

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Prestwich_Blue

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It's a while since I've seen Yaya have a good game and was thinking, having seen the way we were today, that (a) we can manage without him and (b) our best XI is probably now something like:

Hart
Sagna
Kompany
Otamendi/Mangala
Kolarov
Fernando
Fernandinho
De Bruyne
Silva
Sterling/Navas
Aguero

Leaving a bench of seven from:
Caballero
Otamendi/Mangala
Demichelis
Clichy
Nasri
Sterling/Navas
Delph
Yaya
Bony
Iheanacho

Thoughts?
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
It's a while since I've seen Yaya have a good game and was thinking, having seen the way we were today, that (a) we can manage without him and (b) our best XI is probably now something like:

Hart
Sagna
Kompany
Otamendi/Mangala
Kolarov
Fernando
Fernandinho
De Bruyne
Silva
Sterling/Navas
Aguero

Leaving a bench of seven from:
Caballero
Otamendi/Mangala
Demichelis
Clichy
Nasri
Sterling/Navas
Delph
Yaya
Bony
Iheanacho

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Think you've got it spot on. Two ferns is our strongest midfield. Hard to say if Delph would replace Fernando as he hasn't played enough minutes with us to judge. I think Sagna makes a good shout ahead of Zab at the moment, though heart would obviously chose Zab. Also difficult to say if we can field a more balanced side with Sterling and Navas either side of one of De Bruyne or Silva, rather than trying to fit them both in, but leaving one out seems madness so I'd go for Silva in the middle with De Bruyne on the left, and just put whichever is fit of Sterling or Navas on the right, which is what you've done.
 
Hart
Sagna
Kompany
Mangala/Otamendi
Clichy
Navas
Fernando
Fernandinho
Silva
De Bruyne
Aguero

Bench

Caballero
Mangala/Otamendi
Zabba
Kolarov
Sterling
Toure
Kelechi/Bony

Which leaves Nasri, Demichelis, Delph and one of Bony/Kelechi out. In a round about way, we're fortunate that with injuries and suspensions we won't have to worry about leaving players out on too many occasions.
 
I think you will find that the more time Otamendi has to settle in then the better he will get....was great today. Delph may well be a contender for the first team also....but we will have to wait and see on that one.
 
Against weaker opposition:

...................Hart

Sagna...Kompany...Mangala..Clichy

..........Fenandinho...Toure

Navas...........Silva..............KDB

..................Aguero

Against stronger teams:

.................Hart

Sagna..Kompany...Mangala...Clichy

.......Fernandinho..Delph

Navas..........Silva...........KDB

................Aguero

The problem with Toure is that when we don't have him playing (in his usual position) we lose that link between defence and attack. We saw that today.
 
The problem PB, is that without Yaya deep, we don't get the ball to our match winners well enough. But with him, we have a man less than the opposition whilst defending. We need to get rid of him and replace him with a more all-round central midfielder. Someone who can dictate the game, but also is willing to work for the team.

Oh, and Navas definitely deserves to be in the starting 11 over Sterling at the moment.
 
Zabba not in the team, really? With everyone fit our best team always includes the old guard of Hart, Zabba, VK, Silva and Aguero with KDB now added. In the past I would have included Yaya but we need to manage him better (everything we have achieved in the last few years has included big contributions from Yaya).
 
mcfc1996 said:
Zabba not in the team, really? With everyone fit our best team always includes the old guard of Hart, Zabba, VK, Silva and Aguero with KDB now added. In the past I would have included Yaya but we need to manage him better (everything we have achieved in the last few years has included big contributions from Yaya).
Click to expand...
Oops. Forgot about Zaba. But I'd have Sagna in the starting line up ahead of him at the moment.
 
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