With news that mata isnt for sale-
http://www.football365.com/news/21554/7032300/Juan-Mata
and that it transpires that arsenal in fact have not bid for downing, coupled with kenny's obvious interest in him, I think it is fairly likley that downing will sign for us (maybe not the best option for us but would still be good imo). Also with news that highly rated 23 year old left back aly cissokho is avalible for 8m and feels like a real fsg/ commoli type signing I think this looks like a likley (within reason its still early pre season and it is still difficult to be completley accurate)starting 11 for next season.
----------------------------Reina-------------------------
--Johnson---Carragher----Agger----Cissokho-
-----------------------------Lucas------------------------
--------------------Gerrard------Adam---------------
-----------Suarez--------------------Downing--------
----------------------------Carrol-------------------------
to be rotated with
---------------------------Doni-----------------------------
--Flannaghan----Kelly------Skrtel---------Aurelio-
--------------------------Spearing-----------------------
-----------------Merieles----Aqualani-----------------
---------Henderson----------------Maxi----------------
--------------------------Kuyt------------------------------
and with Robinson, Kyriakos and 1 other making up the 25 squad
( i reckon the likes of ayala, pacheco and shelvey could go on loan)
the further roughly 27m expenditure would be partially reduced by fees brought in for whoevers shifted out of cole, jovanovic, poulsen, koncesky, and also possibley insua and n'gog (the alter two id actually be happy to have as squad players). and more importantly getting rid of the huge wages lots of these guys are on
I think the team will go 4-3-3 (clark and his new coaches standard formation)
Id reckon that that this is a good enough team/squad to have a good stab at top four -especially with kenny/ clarke's influence-, actually making it would really depend on arsenal imploding to an extent( maybe not that unlikley) or city behaving like pre-madonnas and not being led so well -on the field- by tevez/ any replacement not working.
thoughts on line up/ think top four'll happen
Team and propsects for new season
posted on 11/7/11
redconn (U5676)
posted 2 minutes ago
>>the fact is our three best midfielders that we have at the club are Gerrard, Meireles and Aquilani.
----
hmm not sure I agree. Gerrard and Merirleles were both in our team last season yet Lucas one the player of the year award ahead of them.
Aquilani has had one disappointing (albeit injury-prone) season in the premier league whilst Adam has had one season in the premier league and was short-listed for best player.
So on that evidence, you could say there is a genuine argument for having Adam and Lucas in the first team.
posted on 11/7/11
If you had to drop one to fit Lucas in, I'd drop Meireles
posted on 11/7/11
hmm not sure I agree. Gerrard and Merirleles were both in our team last season yet Lucas one the player of the year award ahead of them.
------------------------------------
Gerrard was injured a lot and Meireles was played on the left or right most of the time, when Meireles cam into the centre he was the stand out player.
Ok it remains to be seen whether Aquilani is suited to the premier but if he plays anything like he did in Italy last season he should walk past Lucas into the first team. Aquilani's biggest problem is fitness and not his ability, which again suggests we need players like Lucas and Adam as quality back ups.
I can see more of a case for Adam being played ahead of Aquilani if Aquilani doesn't adjust the Premier, and Adam does provide good balance with his left foot, but you would still have to concede that if both were fit and Aquilani can get used to the Premier (he seemed ok the few games he did play for us) then Aquilani again should win that battle, as he is the better player.
More to the point, I just hope we don't lose a quality player in either Aquilani or Meireles. We could regret it!
posted on 11/7/11
fair point in that merieles and possibly aquilani would quite possibley offer more than adam in that attacking role i just put what i think is a more likley satrting line-up
given that one or both may posibley move away i think this line up is the one with the greatest chance of being our regular starting 11.
Merieles does play dm for portugal but that is due to a lack of alternatives more than anything else (miguel veloso his main competitor has been in poor form for a while) and pepe is more adept further back. he would be fine as a defence mid in games where we do not particualrly need a defensive mid (small, negative teams at home etc) and in these games his attacking threat and technique would be really useful, but for the bigger games i would not trust him there. he doesnt have the fitness levels to harry much past the 75min mark and I staunchley (sp) disagree with your point on his tackling. He is a pretty poor tackeler and can be yellow bellied; see the fa cup tie against united where him bottiling it and pulling out oftackle led to a situation where gerrard tried to compensate and got sent off. Dont get me wrong i really like him as a player and he is very good in a pass and move style but he really doesnt have it in his locker to be a reliable holding player in most pl games and in this role lucas is more adept. lucas is also the top tackler in the league (with a reasnobley good succes rate of around 65%), i dont read too much into stats but even still i think he is fast becoming a very good pl holding player, and his simple possesion based passing is exactly what the other more attacking central midfielders need to compliment there more attacking game,
posted on 11/7/11
* to aquilonso earler post
posted on 11/7/11
They could be the best 3 players but that don't make them the best midfielders to play together and since this is a team! They have to play as a team!
posted on 11/7/11
Rotation is back!!!
posted on 11/7/11
sonicthehedgengog
Fair point about Meireles tackling, but I think a big part of that has come down to the fact that he commits fouls when he is chasing back. I've seen him for Portugal though and when he is at DM he is obviously holding a position more and in those situations he is a good tackler, more so than Lucas (who while gets a lot of tackles in in that position, he also commits a lot of free kicks away in dangerous positions). That is Lucas's main weakness still, and hopefully it will improve.
Fair point about Meireles fitness though, that does seem to need some work.
posted on 11/7/11
Aquilonso (U1783)
I agree that we should try and keep both Mierless and Aquilani but disagree about Lucas' tackling. Statistically, he won the most tackles out of all players last season.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11994_2705370,00.html
Would be interesting to see his tackles to foul ratio though.
posted on 11/7/11
Would be interesting to see his tackles to foul ratio though.
------------------------
I would guess that it would be one of the highest in the league. He puts himself about well, but still has to learn when he should tackle and when to hold off, Mascherano was the master of knowing when to tackle, when to hold off, and when to look to intercept. (ok Makelele was the master but Masch is the current master).