Ace Ventura wrote:Obviously to pick a starting eleven with a squad like ours is really difficult, it all depends on who we are playing, but for arguments sake if it was just pick your best team, mine would be...........
Reina
Finnan Carragher Hyypia Riise
Gerrard Alonso Sissoko Gonzalez
Bellamy Crouch
Subs : Dudek Palletta Pennant Garcia Fowler
Admittedly i havent seen enough of Gonzalez but with Harry being injured i think that Mark has an oppurtunity to make that position his own.
If we were chasing a goal that team could easily be changed, with the likes of Fowler Pennant and Garcia fantastic options.
It shows how much strengh in depth there is when the likes of Aurellio Agger and Kewell cant even make the bench, Aurellio could be far better than i am aware and is obviously going to provide plenty of competition with Riise for left back, while also both can cover left midfield, as i said early...so many options, Rafa must be eagerly awaiting the start of this season.
I think there'll be a lot of squad rotation this year by Benitez, but I think your starting 11 there is the one we should start the season with.
I agree with keeping Gerrard on the right. You can't argue with his record last season when he played there regularly. He, Sissoko and Alonso are all undroppable for me (in the big games anyway). If any are unavailable or need rested, then play 2 of them in the centre with Pennant coming in on the right.
I also think Aurelio could emerge as 1st choice LB, but doubt he'll start the season there ahead of Riise. I can see him maybe playing left mid early in the season to ease him into the premiership, maybe in away games where he'd be more defensively minded than Gonzalez.
Crouch will play most games out of our current forwards I think. But he and Bellamy are likely to be the preferred partnership for the big games. Fowler could yet have a big role to play too.
Palleta and Agger I can't see featuring too much again this year. Sami is still the best imo and Benitez doesn't like tinkering with the back 4 too much. People moan about his lack of pace, but Agger and Palleta are hardly like lightening either and Sami has the experience so still gets the nod.
Garcia does seem to be the red herring at the moment. But he's great to have in the squad as he's versatile and can change games coming from the bench.
If Kuyt or another forward signs then Benitez is going to have plenty of selection headaches next season - but it's good for us! Definitely some squad trimming is needed though. I'd get rid of Traore, Diao (obviously), Pongolle, Mellor and Dudek. If we got a good offer for Warnock or even Kewell now I'd also consider it, but if we could keep them happy as squad players I'd ideally keep them. I'd also keep Zenden - good cover, versatile and he's looked really sharp in pre-season, looks hungry for games.