karen7 said:Happy enough with him
meher said:Wasn't it Clattenberg who gave them 3 penalties against united?
Chippy_boy said:Of course we expect Klanfield to be a cauldron and our players need to rise to the occasion. But that said, I think this game is won, drawn or lost depending on how Pellegrini sets us up.
If we play a high line with Vinny making tackles on the half way line as he tends to, Gerard will murder us with balls over the top to Sterling or Sturridge both of who have real pace and will cause MDM and Zabba no end of problems.
For me, we need to sit a little deeper and I'd fill the resulting gap with an extra midfield player, Garcia. I'd play a back four with Clichy for his speed and I'd have either Garcia or Fern sitting deep, probably Fern. So 4-1-4-1
This would mean we'd have to lose Navas, but honestly that's a small sacrifice for the huge gain of the extra holding midfield player and allowing Kompany and MDM to sit back a little. I still think we have more than enough firepower to get goals with Yaya, Nasri, Silva and Aguero running at them, especially with Yaya have the freedom to go forward some more. It also de-risks it a bit because we are not dependent on Yaya doing so much defending, which as we know, sometimes he can't be arsed with.
If we need to score goals later on, we could bring on Dzeko for Aguero and Jovetic for Garcia and go 4-4-2. And perhaps Navas' fresh legs for Nasri as they tire.
theres only one carlito said:Chippy_boy said:Of course we expect Klanfield to be a cauldron and our players need to rise to the occasion. But that said, I think this game is won, drawn or lost depending on how Pellegrini sets us up.
If we play a high line with Vinny making tackles on the half way line as he tends to, Gerard will murder us with balls over the top to Sterling or Sturridge both of who have real pace and will cause MDM and Zabba no end of problems.
For me, we need to sit a little deeper and I'd fill the resulting gap with an extra midfield player, Garcia. I'd play a back four with Clichy for his speed and I'd have either Garcia or Fern sitting deep, probably Fern. So 4-1-4-1
This would mean we'd have to lose Navas, but honestly that's a small sacrifice for the huge gain of the extra holding midfield player and allowing Kompany and MDM to sit back a little. I still think we have more than enough firepower to get goals with Yaya, Nasri, Silva and Aguero running at them, especially with Yaya have the freedom to go forward some more. It also de-risks it a bit because we are not dependent on Yaya doing so much defending, which as we know, sometimes he can't be arsed with.
If we need to score goals later on, we could bring on Dzeko for Aguero and Jovetic for Garcia and go 4-4-2. And perhaps Navas' fresh legs for Nasri as they tire.
i think your spot on regarding the high line. Mdm against Suarez and sturridge over the top is very risky. The very reason we lost to villa was our inability to deal with long balls over the top. We also seen mdm chasing a lost cause against messi through trying to hold a high line. How ever i think we have got a lot better at this tactic from early on in the season when the players weren't truly comfortable with it. For me to play this way you have to be on it 100 percent and hit Gerrard fast and consistently. Make him lose his touch and composure.