As you will see, this WAS going to be the article to be finished and released yesterday.
Okay, it’s the Borussia Monchengladbach, Champions League game tonight; a game where a win for us and a defeat of Juventus by Seville in Spain would see us finish top of our group table. I hope all that happens…and that we also gain some playing pride after two truly AWFUL displays against Liverpool and, later, Stoke City.
But rather than a usual pre-match ‘predicted line-up, subs & outcome’-type piece and BECAUSE of our ailing form of late; I thought, instead, I’d have a look at our squad and do a more-general, “What if they were all fit / best 11 & subs”.
…but, once again, family illness issues prevented me from releasing this posting in time. Apologies.
So very glad we pulled it around after a somewhat dodgy first half display, particularly in defence; SO very glad Sevilla beat Juventus, meaning we finish top of our group table…and Manyoo crashing into the Europa Cup following a 3-2 defeat at Wolfsburg added an extra cherry on the top, I have to say.
So, I continue as planned…
‘All fit’ best 11, formation & subs
4-2-3-1 come 4-2-2-1-1 come 4-4-1-1:
____________________Aguero____________________
___________________Iheanacho__________________
_____________Delph_______Fernandinho__________
_____________________Hart______________________
Notable players not selected:
Starting at the back, Joe is a
no-brainer…so let’s move on.
Moving from left to right and back to front…
…and people who know me, together
with regular readers, might be surprised, nay,
shocked at my starting-inclusion of Aleks Kolarov, when Gael
Clichy was available in my ‘no injuries world’. It’s simply
because in this formation; further up the pitch we don’t necessarily have
‘line-touching wingers’ but rather players who will ‘drift’, ‘swap’ and ‘tuck
in’. In other words, this formation relies on full-backs who are decent at
bombing forward with occasional, overlapping runs.
Seeing as this is a ‘imagine if fit’ exercise; well that’s all we can do with alarmingly
regularity in the last few months and seasons with our Captain, Vinny.
He certainly gets ‘in there’ when fit though, of course; recent stats alone
show how much we miss him so very badly.
Next to him, for me, has to be
Nicolas Otamendi; a player who I think
could strike-up a really good partnership…should ‘our skip’ keep himself on the
pitch long enough.
Poor ol’ Bacary. He has done
nothing whatsoever wrong to deserve being dropped to the bench in my starting
11 - now I know, just a little bit, how managers might feel
when they’re making their decisions. But similar to the ‘Kolarov theory’ in this world of mine,
I believe that Pablo is the better of the two in a supporting, attacking
role…and if he can gain some traction following a series of injuries and regain
some form; he’s one HELL of a defender too [unlike his colleague on the other
flank]!
In the middle of ‘a two’ I’ll
start with a player who, when fit himself,
is really starting to look like a bargain over & ABOVE the mere £8M we paid Aston Villa for the England man. With bags of
running energy; we appear to have a Milner-type player on our books but, of course, a much younger
version. I actually see Fabian being our long-term defensive midfielder and in
this formation, would complement my chosen partner very well indeed.
Fernandinho too, in this formation
/ starting 11, would help out in the defensive midfield duties and, therefore, would
add a little more security to our defence and then, of course, allow our full-backs to ‘bomb forward’ on occasions with
a little more peace of mind. But
Fernandinho can, in this formation also, allow himself to support the attacking
players on occasions; with Fabian ‘staying put’ to cover. It’s all very fluid…
That brings me onto the ‘string
pullers’ and main creative part of the team. Simply put, it almost gives Kevin
De Bruyne and David Silva ‘free roles’ to add a devastating, creative spark and
cause the ‘oppo’ all SORTS of trouble. And who might be the beneficiaries of
that creativity? Two, yes, TWO forwards!
Not that I agree with him entirely;
but Manuel Pellegrini has been quoted on more than one occasion that he sees
Kelechi Iheanacho as a ‘just off’ striker. I believe he can be, sure; but I
also see a very intelligent forward who can ‘run / push the opposition line’
VERY well indeed…not to mention he’s also a flippin’ good finisher! So, Manuel,
why not play him ‘just off’…just off Aguero, who I need-not go into any detail
about.
What a devastating ‘starting 11’ that is, in my humble opinion - a strong defensive
unit with great counter-attacking abilities; creativity-a-plenty and goals!
With ‘everyone fit’ comes some big-guns on the bench…as
well as some players being left out altogether who would get into most Premier League teams I’m
sure.
Willy gets the back-up keeper job
of course…and for the moment at least.
With an ‘all fit’ scenario we
have to have cover on both defensive flanks in my opinion and, in Bacary &
Gael, we have two good’ns.
Gotta have a central defensive
replacement if necessary and Eliaquim gets that job.
Wow! Yaya & Sterling on the bench – not sure how happy
they’d be with that week in / week out. But when you’re in a big squad of top,
top players AND everyone is fit & available; this is what some have to put up
with. And, of course, we can’t play the VERY same 11 all of the time, as much
as continuity can be a good thing along with how highly I would rate this
starting 11.
Wilfried, with our limited striking options, gets the ‘bench job’ for his
department.
The BIG losers in this are an
aging central defender in Martin Demichelis, Fernando wouldn’t be too happy
with me after a largely improved period of time; Samir Nasri (if he was fit of course)
would go into sulking overdrive and finally often-manager-favourite, Jesus Navas, might
look to follow Pellegrini out of the door if I was to take over at the helm.
That team, in
my opinion, would come out on top most weeks in the Premier League…and wouldn’t
do too bad in Europe either (we need to get Kelechi into the knock-out stages
squad if possible).
Where does ‘my selection’ suggest we need to strengthen?
Not necessarily in January; I’m
thinking more summer really…
Starting at
the back, I think we’d all like to see goalkeeping
cover / competition for Joe of better quality than Willy Caballero, unless
we have someone ready to step up from the EDS.
It still screams a new left-back for me; possibly an attacking wing-back type-player but I’d
take a bloody good, left-sided defender!
Get Jason Denayer back in the New Year - or next season
at least - and if the ‘other 3’ (minus Martin Demichelis) can settle down
both in ‘form’ and ‘injury-wise’ then we SHOULDN’T need a new central defender
at all. If not, we might need one of these too…
I think Samir
might be on his way out…possibly
anyway. And with us-better using Yaya periodically from now on in my opinion;
then a move for Paul Pogba or
similar creative / attacking,
central midfielder is a must for us in order to keep ahead of the Jones’.
Indulgence? Possibly a classy
right-winger?
And a definite
is at least one, new TOP striker.
Hope you
enjoyed my little indulgence – feel free to comment as always and thanks, as always, for ‘taking the time’…
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