Hello my dears.
The tension is tangible. Only nearly 24 hours away from one of the biggest games in this football club’s entire history ever, since the last one. I had my say about the need for discipline here and so beyond that we need to make sure we …score.
Manu, Defoe and that pesky Russian are all fit and raring to go. Sadly Manu’s contractual obligations mean he’ll only be going as far as the comfy seats behind the substitutes.
So then there were two.
Arry in the Current Bun says of Defoe,
“City have won all 10 Prem home games this term but it would be a fantastic achievement for us to go there and change that.
Defoe could have a key role in that. I watch him in training and he has the shortest backlift of any striker, he barely bends his leg when teeing up a shot but then he is a brilliant finisher.
“I’ve taken Jermain with me to nearly all the clubs I’ve managed. I signed him as a little kid at West Ham, he has been with me at Portsmouth and now at Spurs.
Our squad is more than capable of coming away with something from Man City, and it could be a big day for Defoe.”
Let’s hope they can both do the right thing and take a leaf from Ade’s performances and do more than ‘turn’, ‘shoot’ and ‘wince’. Pav’s been AWOL ever since the Togan arrived and he won’t get a better chance to prove he’s worth keeping than Sunday.
His run out in the Europa weren’t any good and we can sit here and bicker over why that was the case until the end of time. The focus here is on a top flight Premiership game surrounded by decent team mates and dangerous opposition.
Can you find Pav? Can Pav find himself? Click on the image below!
Courtesy of the excellent www.fantasyleague.com
OH No!!! Holy shite ! did i hear howard webbs name mentioned , Is only 1 step up from bottom burp chris foy
Go for it: 3 (Bale, VDV, Defoe), 4 (Rose or Walker, Modric, Parker, Lennon), 3 (Walker, Kaboul, BAE). Once we’ve got the quick goal or two, change to 4, 5, 1, leaving Defoe up front, dropping Bale back to midfield, taking off VDV and Rose, and bringing on Livermore and Daws. Easy.
By Christ I feel the sword of destiny poised and ready to strike.
Defoe being the master plan is a joke, he is not good enough for Spurs
You’re right, he’s not that good, well over-rated, by himself mostly.
I expect in a few days time, we will hear all the moans about our likely failure to buy anybody sensational in this window. I think Defoe is the explanation.
To be fair, as a goalscorer, he ain’t that bad, but there are better players out there. If you look at the team team as a whole, there are several players who are very good, but it is difficult to replace them with someone better. And there are players like Friedel, who is likely to need to be replaced, but not today.
There are plenty of teams out there who would see Defoe as an improvement, but at the moment if we sell him, how many players are there out there, who are available, affordable and better than waht we have already.
Most of the posts I’ve seen are saying the same thing: We need a CB and a striker. If you look into that, what they are really saying, is that we need cover for King/Gallas because they are two of the best. So if we are going to sign somebody in that bracket, (a) they need to be very good and (b) they have to be prepared to sit on the bench when the others are fit.
The same applies to any striker we take on. They have to better that Ade if they don’t want to sit on the bench, and they will see Defoe and Pav already doing that.
This time last year, there were screams to buy Carroll/Torres/Suarez and others, and I mentioned that before we could sign them there were a series of tests to be met, such as could we afford the fee, wages, availability, willingness to play for us. Since then, we have improved a lot, and there is a new test that should be added: are they sufficiently better than what we have got already to make it worth our while shelling out for them.
I would not be surprised if we don’t make that BIG BIG signing this window, and the reason is, that we are now that good, that there are very few players out there that we CAN sign, that are better than what we have already. To some extent, we are victims of our own success, and the only way we will get past this, is with the extra revenue from the new stadium.
Available, affordable and an improvement, you got it in one. Any striker mentioned is and will only be speculative at best. Of course there are other’s, I mentioned before Fletcher doing a great job at Wolves, but if were to sign him, I’m sure the low price tag would make many assume he couldn’t possibly be good enough for us. Any buy in Jan isn’t a good buy, whereas a sale, is generally profitable. Use the window to get rid of a few and use the summer to get the right man and the right price,
Its got to be said there’s a lot of shit scared fellas blogging today.Why? Yes they have a good side but ours is better. I reckon we will beat this lot by two clear goals. Have faith lads. By the way I’m drinking Merlot.
Ah, you again jim. Good to hear your voice of optimism. As I said above, let’so for it: 3 (Bale, VDV, Defoe), 4 (Rose or Walker, Modric, Parker, Lennon), 3 (Rose or Walker, Kaboul, BAE). Once we’ve got the quick goal or two, change to 4, 5, 1, leaving Defoe up front to annoy them, dropping Bale back to midfield, taking off VDV and Rose, and bringing on Livermore and Daws. Easy. I’m drinking cough syrup.
Defoe is not a target man so lets hope we play 442 or 433, if we leave defoe up there alone we will in effect put ourselves under to much pressure.
We have no target man which we tend to play with so we have NO choice but to attack….
Shiraz tonight, last drinky till late Sunday evening-either a celebratory or consolation,who knows?