Agreed. Unleash them against the scousers

I think Paulinho would have to be sacrificed for those guys to play. We would need Dembele/Capoue and Sandro as the deep lying CMs.

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Attacking formation

=====Sandro holtby
Lennon == Eriksen == Townsend

Defensive / ball retention

===== Sandro Dembele
Lennon == Paulinho == chadli

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Dembele seems different nowadays. he's doing what I hoped he would. He's not a great passer but he can beat a man with ease. He should just run at goal. something will happen. Foul, assist or even goal. I think Demeble is best when he doesn't think too much. Just go for goal...whats the worst that could happen. I'd rather he loses the ball in the opponents D than trying tricks in our own half and putting pressure on our defence

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Agree, but the problem we have is Holtby, Eriksen and Lamela would be fighting out for the AM position

Siggy isn't a left winger, we need to keep our wingers direct wide men, Townsend and Lennon are ideal to our system

I want to see more of Lamela, but not at the expense of Holtby (for now at least)

I've been impressed with his attitude and I really feel we need his hunger and eagerness to receive the ball in the team at the moment.

Agree Super, in the last few games he's looked better, more confident on the ball, just needs to be more direct, and open the play up, I hope he has a good 6 months to finish the season off,

For starters, Lamela has done nothing in my opinion to deserve being included in our best attacking 3. And secondly, the team would be too small with all them in there, and we could suffer from set-pieces and general aerial 50/50s.

Then again, Holtby is also small - which is who i was going to suggest. I think this is why Chadli got the nod on Saturday.

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Chicken

AVB does like to use a taller wide player (Lamela, Chadli, Siggy) on the left, why Paulinho managed to get that goal Sat

I've been impressed with Chadli. Would be happy to see him start against Liverpool

He'd be up against Johnson, so to change in the last 20 with Townsend pushing Johnson back, would work wonders

Thudd,

AVB does like to use a taller wide player

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It makes sense to be fair. Football is not all about dribbling round players. We have to win duals on the floor, in the air, from corners, long throws and all sorts.

The team needs a good balance of tall players - just to counteract any aerial threat we're up against.

Chicken

What are your thoughts on Defoe starting recently? especially with Defoe making it clear he wants to get games as the world cup is coming up?

Defoe hasn't scored a single PL goal in 3 starts and 8 apps from the bench

Keep the same team that started against Sunderland, though I'd replace Defoe with Soldado

Lamela had a slow start to his Roma career aswell then suddenly exploded onto the scene. This guy will be our best player within time no doubt about it. I also would love to see that team eventually.

Thudd,

As i have said a few times (not a dig by the way ) i just think we look far more dangerous with Defoe in the team. Its actually refreshing to see our striker look a real threat.

Dont get me wrong, he should have scored at least a couple on Saturday, maybe a hat-trick, and its 100% fair to criticize on that part, but Defoe has been creating shots from himself, creating for others, giving options for others to create, and we look far better from it.

As i said to Greaves yesterday, i have been vocal about Defoe starting purely because we have been ineffective around the box - not because i'm pro-Defoe or anti-Soldado - and if things go stale, or the team is struggling with Defoe up top, then i will be just as vocal about utilising the other strikers we have (including Soldado and Ade as well).

Its not about the names, the value of a signing, or how new or old the signing is, its all about how i see the team perform - and i feel all the attacking players have performed better with Defoe on the pitch.

On Saturday i witnessed Defoe dropping deep (something Soldado has hardly done), i see him running at players looking for a snap shot (something i haven't even seen Soldado do), i see Defoe making intelligent runs to get behind the defence (something Soldado has hardly done) and i started to get that "We're going to score in a minute" feeling (something i do not really get with Soldado).

Defoe was fortunate his missed chances were not costly, i'll give him that, but i think he has been a breath of fresh air in the last 2 games.

To keep fans behind him (including me) he has to, as a striker, get something in the net, off his knee, arsé, or anything!

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It's threads like this that make me realise what a fantastic and exciting squad we have

One day soon we are surely going to click, and somebody is in for a mauling!!

I truly believe we have bought for the next 3 seasons. We get other fans saying how much we have spent. I actually think this was a 3 year spend in one season. We really don't need to buy much over the next 6 windows. Maybe an LB and replace striker with striker. but we won't need to make many acquisitions over the coming years.

comment by Ioavirgo (U10470)
posted 47 minutes ago
I truly believe we have bought for the next 3 seasons. We get other fans saying how much we have spent. I actually think this was a 3 year spend in one season. We really don't need to buy much over the next 6 windows. Maybe an LB and replace striker with striker. but we won't need to make many acquisitions over the coming years.
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If we can keep hold of our best players I would definitely agree! I read an article the other day which said that on average we had the third youngest squad in the PL, which suggests that many of our players have not yet reached their peak.

I truly believe we have bought for the next 3 seasons

Yeah I think so too, but I'm sure top 4 is the target, failing that I think Levy will accept a trophy, no one expected Everton to be great under Martinez, Liverpool to be this good or Southampton to show the form

And on the other end United being this bad