No King Cole, No General Franco, No Major (as in surgery) Ashton, No Drummer Boy Sears - what in God's name does Zola do for the Pompey game? Start with Nouble? The kid certainly cannot be asked to lead the line alone. Risk Dixon Both Crocked And Green? Avram Grant must be wearing a smile broader than the Gaza Strip!
I have been warning that this would happen since August. Don't say it is bad luck, it is rank bad planning. You can't trust to just two fit strikers, Cole and Franco, and expect to get through the season without this happening, especially when one of the two is 33 years old and unaccustomed to the pace and intensity of the Prem. I warned that Franco should not be risked against Chelsea in case this happened; I didn't dream that he would be allowed to do anything in training that might result in injury, freak or otherwise. Somebody should know by now that if it can go wrong, it will go wrong!
So what does Zola do? Personally, I would go with Diamanti and Stanislas up front, with strict instructions that they must not track back. Both should be detailed to press Pompey's centre backs when we are not in possession and to sit on their shoulders when we are, looking to break on to passes over the top. That leaves us short in midfield, so I would move Faubert forward and tell him to get forward, take on the fullback and whip in crosses low. My team would read:
Green - Spector, Tomkins, Upson, Ilunga - Faubert, Parker, Kovac, Collison - Diamanti, Stanislas.
The hope would be that Collison will get in to the box to support Diamanti and Stanislas and that Diamanti will prove his quality as a finisher if allowed chances inside the box. Will Diamanti be disciplined enough to operate as a striker? God knows but it would be a huge ask to pitch kids like Nouble and Dixon into this game.
It's a mess, but it is a mess of our own making! You reap what you sew!
8 comments:
You picked Kovac HF! You feeling alright? Na, that's good, he's been getting a hard time lately. No Noble, interesting and I agree. If Da Costa is fit I would swap with I-run-like-I-need-a-dump Tomkins.
I would definitely have Dixon and Nouble ready for plan B and give them at least a good half hour.
One positive is that Zola was saying the Behrami maybe back so we may have drop Kovac after all.
Oh F**k it........
Have we got some kind of gypsy curse on us?
On second thought's no we have not, Just very bad management.
Or very good PR, Think about it, is this there chance to show us dixon & nouble? King Cole, who needs him I hear them say.
£20m to one of the big boys?
I am now going to do my mystic meg bit and look into the future for the next injured player....my crystal balls are telling me that Illunga will have a strange illness which is yet to be discovered, but will keep him out for a couple of weeks, but wait we have this young swiss boy who's name a can't spell.
I dont know? The Worst management of a club since Leeds, Or just spin.
Why do they just not come out and say,
"we need to sell all of our best players because we can't afford not to sell them, because them club is F**ked & has been run into the ground by people who dont know where to put the decimal point"
I'd like to see Dixon given a chance, he excites me and yet he doesn't even have a squad number!!
That means he can't get booked TBI :) Let's play him!
HF why do you prefer KOVAC over NOBLE in that holding role?
A good question Essex. I'm not sure! I just feel that Parker is able to express himself more with Kovac holding. Noble and Parker just don't seem to gel as a pair in the middle. Mind you, Noble would offer some prospect of scoring - Parker and Kovac are both weak in that area.
After watching PARKER unleashed in that attacking midfield role he proved to me that he is our most effective player in that role.I think the goals will come if he can continue with that role,because he is certainly not scared to have a shot.KOVAC playing that holding role frees up PARKER but we have not seen NOBLE play that role yet by himself.I think NOBLE'S distribution is better than KOVAC ,as he is more attack minded ,so our build up play will flow better.KOVAC has an annoying tendency to pass it back or sideways rather than doing something positive with the ball.I just think ZOLA should give PARKER and NOBLE those two roles as I think it will provide better balance to the side.
The thing with Noble is that he's neither here or there. Is he an attacking/creative midfielder or a defensive/holding one? He doesn't do enough in either bracket for my liking. Lost for too long in games and in my opinion, is the reason we have to play 5 in midfield, to make up for him. Very disappointed with his lack of progress. I hope Collison gets the backing Noble has got and is getting. He will be three times the player.
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