Good morning.
Having relentlessly shredded our manager like he was going into a Hannibal Lecter type coleslaw …we have an FA Cup semi final looming.
Your Cheatski has no regard for human life, not even of his own. For this reason men, I want to impress upon you the need for extreme watchfulness. The enemy may come individually, or in strength. He may even appear in the form of Fernando Torres. But however we must stop him.
apologies to Gen. Jack D Ripper
Cheatski will be looking at Spurs and licking their lips at the very thought. And it’s difficult to oppose the optimism. Since di Matteo took over, the natural order at Second Hand Fridge has been restored. Nephew Fwank is going through the gears and the boy Torres is slowly but surely coming out of shell.
To add to the feel good factor, whoever wins this game faces either a hit and miss Everton or a dysfunctional Liverpool. I submit that who wins our game will win the Cup.
So will we lose? King being utterly knackered at a time when Dawson is out is nothing shy of disasterous. This leaves the way clear for Half Nelsen who I know some of you haven’t written off, but I’, genuinely struggling to see the good in. We looked like the Keystone Kops back there at the weekend.
Pathe News Boy ought to be rested and hopefully sitting out the Norwich game will have given Sandro an opportunity to refocus his mind.
In the midfield, it’s fingers crossed. Will Modric sit centrally? Will Bale and Azza get told to play to their strengths or …not?
Up front it’s equally a lottery. Defoe as an impact sub is undoubtedly the way forward. Now I am convinced the Midget Gem would shake his head at the sound of this, but he needs to rethink that response. Let’s be brutally frank. He only scores goals. He invariably contributes bugger all to general game-play. In effect, he’s an assassin. In – kill – out. What would he rather do, ponce about for 90 minutes occasionally *ahem* getting caught offside, or zip on late and score?
Adebayor and Saha played well together once I know they did. I didn’t dream it, …did I? So they need the same class of supply at they got that day – all of the time. And less of this, ‘they don’t track back’ cobblers.
All the assets are there. It’s down to how they are managed on the day. Let me leave you with that chilling thought. And this corker of a picture highlighted by @SerfCity
My Pompey mates have given up even discussing anything to do with football now. They just give me this look like your parents used to give. You know, the one that has “I told you so” etched all over it.
God I’m depressed today.
I hope we can get 30,000 brown paper bags cut out in time for Sunday. Knowing our luck, some fool will forget to check the order and they’ll be red paper bags.
God I’m still depressed.
I must know someone with 30,000 large brown paper bags. Now, wherever did I put my childproof scissors?
Bluddy hell, how many rank women are there in London?
How many do you need? I still know people.
I’ll take a dozen of your strongest and finest please Sir
On the upside, they did win the Cup under Harry!
:unsure:
Chalk it up! Give the Schnapps Brand another polish. Any old iron … oooh, wasn’t The Brand there too?
This is the spirit we need for the rest of the season:
We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender
Unless we’re in the Europa League of course!
Not sure we will be getting a Churchill style speech, more like a Captain Mainwaring pre- manouvers teamtak with the odd “don’t panic” thrown in from Kevin Bond and finished off with a “we’re doomed” from Joe Jordan… :-(
Still haven’t ;-) cheered up then Harts?
Au contraire mon amie….just got my tickets for Sunday so happy until then at least.. ;-)
No drinking allowed on the street,I know what you Northern Lads are like when comin’ down to the Big Smoke-enjoy ;-)
can we go to the pub first?
As Trevor Tanner appears to have scheduled the games I think that was the plan :pirat:
Spiffing 1
yep, could be Arry’s Finest Hour yet..
if the 11 below can play to their best..guts going forward…stamina fighting for every ball..they’re a brighter lot than anything the Chavs can :
Brad
Kyle Kaboul Gallas Benny
Sandro Scottie
VDV Modric Bale
Ade
Lennon & JD warming up from 30th min. onwards
That’s a crackerjack side if Eunice is fit. Fingers crossed :angel:
What are we frightened of that we need to play two holding midfield players from the off? Lennon needs to start. He has a good record against Cheatski. I would leave Sandro out and bring him on when PNB is exhausted. Starting with Sandro is a risk because you never know how early he will pick up his yellow card and then you are on tenterhooks about playing with ten men until you can sub him.
The risk is central defence. I really like Kaboul and Gallas as a pairing and if one or heaven forbid both are out then we are in big trouble.
Sad to say but I would not play King under any circumstances. The opposition would have seen that debacle on Monday and they will target him like hell if he plays. If there are no other options then I honestly think Livermore would do a better job at the back right now than King.
It’s not that we’re frightened, it’s just that we know that Chelsea play 3 in the middle, so we’ll be continually outnumbered there if we just play Parker & Modric…
Asking VDV to drop in and sit on their deep-lying MF is one way to counter this, but would you trust him to do it?! No, nor would I…
I don’t go for this theory of “let’s put out our best XI and hope for the best…” – it’s all a bit K Keegan… all a bit HR, I’m afraid… (Paul Lambert showed us that on Monday…)
Agree, Lennon on the right, Bale on the left. Chelsea are stodgy, slow, frightened of pace. People say we need to match their three in midfield but they forget that Lennon does track back and help out, Bale does that a little bit more when he’s on the left, and VDV does not stay wide right which in turn gives encouragement to Bale to start wandering.
The message to Harry is – Keep it Simple, Stupid.
A goal keeper, a back 4. Parker holding, Modric pulling strings from deep. Lennon and Bale in their rightful places, Adebayor up front, VDV wafting around behind him in support. I seem to remember us winning quite a few games and playing some good stuff with this set up.
Lennon will track Cole and Bale will track the other FB, but that still leaves us a man short in MF unless VDV drops in on the holder…
We continually berate HR for his lack of tactical nous, after all – don’t we need to be a bit smarter? Or, will “our best XI is better than your best XI” be enough?
Well it’s a conundrum I suppose. But personally I feel safer with Lennon on right and Bale on left than nobody (VDV) on right, nobody (Bale) on left.
I do believe that if we go with the formation and team which won us all those games earlier in the season it will give us our best chance – I’m sure for all of Chelsea’s possible domination in the centre they would much rather we went like-for-like with them and tried to slug it out with them than went for it down both flanks.
Remember we only started trying out this 2 holding players in recent weeks, and recent weeks haven’t been too hot. Granted, it’s better than the 4-4-2, but the balance is the 4-4-1-1 that we have had most joy with the past couple of years.
It is a conundrum, indeed…
I’m almost certain HR will go for a lopsided 4-2-3-1, with Sandro & Parker holding.
Modric, VDV and Bale ahead of them, with Walker being asked to assist on the right, going forward…
Adebayor up top… it might work without Cole playing… the key is for VDV to stay high up the pitch so that Adebayor doesn’t get isolated…
My thoughts exactly – don’t give them the attacking impetous – Go back to what worked well early season Bale Left Lennon Right, Parker & Modric central.
AND MAKE SURE VAN DER VAART STAYS HIGH TO PLAY OFF ADE not dropping back and picking up the ball behind Modric, let Modric do that