Firstly, look at where their main attacking threat appears to be: Ashley Cole. Which means that no matter what your opinion on him is, SWP must play wide right to counter his threat.
Then look at their strikers. Both like to run into the channels, so when they break I'd have our fullbacks on red alert that once they are out wide, they must do all they can to keep them there by not letting them cut inside. If we had another decent centre half who was fit, I'd play Toure right back for this game, but we don't, so I'd have Zabba on the treadmill this week to imrpove his pace.
Now we start to look towards our attacking threats. Robinho, Bellamy and Ireland (Thw un-holy trinity). Ivanovic is a decent centre half, but at right back his weaknesses can be exposed, his indecisivness (sp). As long as we constantly have Robinho and Bellamy to keep switching from left wing to striker (which they showed signs of doing when they played together last year), we should be able to expose him by confusing him.
Then we look at the midfields. Lampard Ballack and Cole are all skillfull,plus Essien who likes to get forward. So we need to combat that with something. de Jong should be told to stick to Lampard and give him absolutely no space. He is the one that can make anything happen, so we would at least give ourselves a fighting chance. Also have Barry in there to watch the other two, with Ireland watching Essien, who breaks.
Now, because they play with no wingers, and SWP will be watching their one real wide player, our fullbacks will have to tuck in more than usual when defending. This of course leaveswide space for their forwards, but if our fullbacks stay wide our midfield will be overun, so we need to take that risk, but stay sharp.
Now, onto our real chances. Set pieces. We need to do something with them. Despite MoTD saying we had scored from 2 this season, me and Phil (my would-be assistant) worked out that we had scored from 7 set-pieces this season. And after watching the Villa/Wigan - Chelsea games, set-pieces can be a problem. As l;ong as we don't simply give the ball to the keeper, we can always do soething from a croner, because their defence still does not know how to deal with them.
Another weakness is, erm, well, that appears to be it. So, set pieces and a Robbie/Bellers combination it is, either that or a genuine Superman moment.
There's my plan. Hughes, I hope you have one much, much better.
