Jump to content

Strongest Line Up?


ForeroGabe

Recommended Posts

Best thing about this is I've no idea who our best lineup will be. It will be different depending on home/away on quality of opposition. also most importantly on form of the players. 

 

I think any of 18 players could form part of our strongest team if they were in top form. 

 

I think we have a better squad than Mcleish had in his season, so we should be aiming to finish a lot further up the table. Anything less is failure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best thing about this is I've no idea who our best lineup will be. It will be different depending on home/away on quality of opposition. also most importantly on form of the players.

I think any of 18 players could form part of our strongest team if they were in top form.

I think we have a better squad than Mcleish had in his season, so we should be aiming to finish a lot further up the table. Anything less is failure.

Not sure about that. Our squad is probably comparable but the standard in the league is also perhaps higher.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Best thing about this is I've no idea who our best lineup will be. It will be different depending on home/away on quality of opposition. also most importantly on form of the players. 

 

I think any of 18 players could form part of our strongest team if they were in top form. 

 

I think we have a better squad than Mcleish had in his season, so we should be aiming to finish a lot further up the table. Anything less is failure.

 

 

I believe the key to a successful team is,

 

1) Competition for places. A good squad means people don't get complacent, it happens to all people and when you feel your place could be under threat it makes you work harder. 

 

2) Having no large weak points in any position. A team should be more than a sum of it's parts, so a team of all 6/10 players will be better than a team of 4s and 8s. This is because a player beside a weak player needs to cover for him, he will also be thinking about his team mates potential mistakes and how he will deal with that rather than focussing on his own game, it drags these 8s down to 7s or lower. 4s remain 4s. 

 

3) Tactical flexibility. Opponents have teams of people to do their homework on you before you play them, we have suffered too much from being a counter attacking one plan team. I want to have the option to switch to some guile, have Cole & Grealish on to beat a man and make some space against deep defence. Even to a 4-4-2 play down the wings to cross / win corners and have both Benteke and Kozak up front causing all kinds of trouble. 

 

Switching from a tactic that clearly isn't working is something a manager needs to do in the modern game. I admire managers who sub off players 30 mins into a game because they realise they have got the tactics wrongs. Don't worry about the idiots in media, or a backlash from fans. They'll think player was subbed off because he was playing badly, you sub him off because your tactic to pack the midfield is killing you, you need an outlet and your most pacy winger on the bench is left sided player so you take off the left mid of midfield, regardless of how he is playing. 

 

 

I've long thought a very smart owner would see the best benefits you can make to a club is appointing the right manager. So why not pay similar wages to a manager than the top 4 pay and see if you can attract the absolute best to develope the club. You'll end up wasting more money giving an average manager transfer funds. 

 

I really think Lambert is an excellent manager, I really admire how he looks to have learnt from his mistakes. He hasn't moaned about the crippling financial conditions he was put under in his time here. I really believe we will do very well this season and 14th or lower would be a disappointment 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I still think our attacking options are a little bit on the light side until we get Benteke and to a lesser extent Kozak back.

 

Absolutely, I don't think anyone would argue. But if you take those two as being the main men then as 3rd and 4th choice options Weimann and Gabby are better than most the clubs in and around where we will be this season.

 

Oh and there is that fat bloke that keeps hanging around as well. :)

 

Sorry about that I know it's been close a few times but i'm still here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

I still think our attacking options are a little bit on the light side until we get Benteke and to a lesser extent Kozak back.

 

Absolutely, I don't think anyone would argue. But if you take those two as being the main men then as 3rd and 4th choice options Weimann and Gabby are better than most the clubs in and around where we will be this season.

 

Oh and there is that fat bloke that keeps hanging around as well. :)

 

Sorry about that I know it's been close a few times but i'm still here.

 

 

Ha :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Against Liverpool we will need a 5 man midfield so i would go:

 

---------------Guzan------------------

 

Hutton Vlaar Senderos Cissokho

 

---------Westwood Delph----------

 

Weimann---Cleverely---Richardson

 

---------------Gabby-------------------

 

Would be harsh to drop Weimann and think N'Zogbia is the easiest player to drop

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On reflection I may go with this line up when all fit

 

----------------------------Guzan

Hutton---------Senderos----------Vlaar-------------Cissokho

---------------Sanchez------------------Westwood

Grealish--------------Cleverley---------------Delph

---------------------Benteke

 

Subs: Given,  Okore,  Weimann,  Agbonlahor, Richardson, Cole, Bacuna

 

Forgot Nzogbia!

Edited by Richard
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd go for this but swap Westwood with Sanchez once he's up to speed.

 

6dybms.png

 

Whilst Westwood has been in good form, he's probably the weakest of the centre midfielders providing Sanchez adapts to the Premier League in the way I imagine him too.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

                Guzan

Hutton Senderos Vlaar Cissokho

     Sanchez Cleverly Delph

Bacuna                         Grealish

                Benteke

 

This is what I would go with when everyone is fit. The good thing is we now have some depth to the squad so when form or injuries dictate Lambert has options, finally.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the 4-2-3-1 formation but I'm not sure if we have the right players to use it

As it stands with our squad I would play:

Guzan

Hutton Senderock Vlaar Cissokho

Westwood Delph

Agbonlahor Cleverley Richardson

Weimann

Then when defending Cleverley can drop deeper in between Delph and Westwood to make a 3 man midfield and Gabby + Richardson provide strong capable cover for the fullbacks. Then you've got Weimann up on his own so we would need all 3 AM pushing up on counters or when in possession to make sure he's not isolated.

With that team you can have a bench with options like Sanchez, Cole, Grealish and N'Zogbia so there are a lot of ways to shake up midfield.

Westwood needs to be in our team. He is our best midfielder as far as I'm concerned

Edited by skarroki
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd go for this but swap Westwood with Sanchez once he's up to speed.

 

6dybms.png

 

Whilst Westwood has been in good form, he's probably the weakest of the centre midfielders providing Sanchez adapts to the Premier League in the way I imagine him too.

This team for when we're at home (maybe against weaker teams where we have possession) then replace Westwood with Sanchez away or when we're playing counter attack.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depending on the opposition of course.

            Guzan

         Vlaar Senderos 
Hutton                    Cissokho
      Westwood    Sanchez
     Cleverley     Delph
            Grealish
            Benteke

But that front 4 could get swapped and rotated quite a lot depending on opposition, score, match, etc.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the 4-2-3-1 formation but I'm not sure if we have the right players to use it

 

I think we do, and love its flexibility. The position and makeup of midfield can be different depending on opposition. 

 

We can set up for counter attacking pace. We can set up more defensive by dropping our attacking midfielder Cleverly and adding in Sanchez as an added DM.

 

We can play Richardson and Bacuna on the wings, both defensive wide players. Play Gabby and Cleverly through the center. 

 

We have defensive, attacking, creative or pacy players in positions which gives the manager options to change the game. 

 

We are a goal up at home to Sunderland say, we set up with creativity and got our lead. Now we can switch to our lethal counter attacking pace and kill the game off with 10 or 15 to go when they go all out for an eqaliser for example. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do love how much we always over rate any and all academy prospects. Everyone has Grealish in their first teams as if he's a seasoned Premier League footballer. 

 

Need I list the people we all had high hopes for after early performances in a season only to fade? 

 

Grealish should not be a first team starter this season unless he turns out to Aron Lennon by Christmas. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the team will start off after the international break looking something like this (front 6 only):

 

           Westwood

     Cleverley Delph

N'Zogbia           Weimann

             Agbonlahor

 

Which will then morph into our strongest set up when everyone is up to speed:

 

             Sanchez

    Cleverley      Delph

Agbonlahor        Weimann

              Benteke

 

The possibilities compared to last season are such an improvement - to think that 'strongest' set up doesn't contain N'Zogbia, Grealish, Westwood and to a lesser extent Cole, Kozak etc.

 

We've done very well this transfer window, although an injury to Vlaar and we are potentially back to square one.

Edited by jonno_2004
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do love how much we always over rate any and all academy prospects. Everyone has Grealish in their first teams as if he's a seasoned Premier League footballer.

Need I list the people we all had high hopes for after early performances in a season only to fade?

Grealish should not be a first team starter this season unless he turns out to Aron Lennon by Christmas.

Should probably be for the Grealish thread but I can only imagine you haven't seen him play. He might be raw and a risk, but he's almost worth points by himself. In the same way Ashley Young used to draw fouls, that's what Grealish does. He gives us a massive advantage by scaring the shit out of defenders. It's a whole other dimension we haven't had for a while so he's worth sitting in the hole, giving him the ball and let defenders either stand off or commit and give away fouls. I agree about overegging our academy players and the same was done with Delfouneso etc but Grealish is completely different.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...
Â