I’m not simply jumping on the Yaya
‘bashing’; I said in my last posting that we’d
need to be ‘up for it’ if we want to take a point or better at White Hart Lane and, therefore, it wouldn’t be a game
for a player who has shown a laughable level of purpose for the most part this
season.
Get the midfield right…
With no Ivorian in the middle, it’s a chance for Pellegrini to really get the midfield right for this
one. The defence will need protecting a little with the charge of second-top
scorer Kane and a list of midfielders who, on
their day, can hurt you.
And does he ‘stick or twist’? Does he go with Aguero on his own in a kind of 4-5-1 or does he
‘pitch in’ the [training pitch] recovering Bony
alongside the Argentine in a 4-4-2?
Well regular readers will know that I rarely do a ‘What I
would pick’ ahead of games; choosing a ‘Pellegrini predicted 11’ instead. But
with this one being so very vital for both teams for differing reasons (okay...the
league’s ‘gone’ but 2nd is ‘a must’ in my eyes) I thought I’d ‘knock myself out’
with a team selection of my own.
Blue chews-daze’s
City 11 v Spurs…
4-5-1 (4-2-3-1):
_______________Aguero_______________
________Fernando____Fernandinho______
Clichy___Mangala___Demichelis__Zabaleta
_________________Hart_________________
Hart, of course…and that’s about the strongest defence we
can put out, which isn’t a bad one at all really. Glad Gael is available again.
We’ve got to go with both the ‘Ferns’ for this one. Fernando
can sit a little deeper and ‘inho’ can allow himself something of a ‘duel
role’; being disciplined enough to help out in defending but also supporting in
attack where possible.
Milner, Silva & Navas to provide the attacking aspect of
the midfield behind leading Premier League
scorer Aguero.
As well as defensive cover on the bench, we’d have a wealth
of ‘game changers’ and goal threats to choose from.
My only concern with my own selection would be that, unless
he’s really ‘on the ball’, Fernandinho might get lost in a double role and
might prove largely ineffective in both aspects.
And then there’s Navas – so disappointingly ineffective once
he’s ran the ball into the corner and with no ‘big men’ to aim for up front in
the starting 11 at least; it might prove almost worthless having him on there
is some respects. Perhaps overlapping and
‘inside’ runs would be the way to go here.
v Tottenham Hotspur
4-5-1 (4-2-3-1):
_______________Aguero_______________
Nasri____________Silva___________Navas
________Fernando_______Milner_________
Clichy___Mangala___Demichelis__Zabaleta
_________________Hart_________________
Subs: Caballero,
Sagna, Boyata, Lampard, Fernandinho, Dzeko, Bony.
So similar to mine, if could I be so bold. I’d pick this
team also…but I just don’t think it’s a game for ‘head-struggling Nasri’.
I could understand, though, compensating for the lack of
creativity, at least, from the loss
of Yaya but with Samir’s head also not being right; will a trip to Spurs help? I
would say not.
Result? This has
got “draw” written all over it. I think we’ve got some
momentum and character back into the side now and will give them a real game -
bench included we can hurt them in several ways if we apply ourselves correctly.
But despite one midweek newspaper report suggesting that Pochettino would now want to avoid a 5th-place,
Europa League place at all cost, I disagree; I
think that’s their ONLY focus
now. Harry Kane too will want to finish
Premier League top scorer as well of course…
But they have proven to be flaky this season…so have we.
With, then, 2 home games against QPR & Southampton
sandwiching an away trip to Swansea City; I’d
be quite happy with a point tomorrow whilst
hoping for all 3 of course.
Class v Classless
Finishing 2nd (hopefully) and having a class
manager OR
finishing 1st and having a total t***er in charge? It’s a close one! At the moment – being resigned to losing our crown of course
– I’m very happy having a our ‘Charming Man’ at the helm and leading our team
to the runners-up spot.
Not content with winning the league, Ego Mourinho had decided to take (another) swipe at us for
breaching F(not-so)FP. Not content either with the
punishment & restrictions already imposed on us; he recons it should have gone further and that we should have had Premier League points deducted too. What a classless d**k!
Our Manager’s reaction when asked to respond? See for yourself at the start of this.
And then there’s this bullying a***hole…
You may have your faults (who doesn’t?) but I love-ya man…
Yawn. Truly awful.
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