Page 1 of 47
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 12:01 amby baldricks_cunning_plan
Lets get Spurs over and done with first eh lad.
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 12:53 amby Dundalk
Get Spurs out of the way first Bav
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 3:33 amby Bad Bob
There shall be no match threads before their time. For shame! 
Locked until relevant.
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:16 pmby Bad Bob
Moving quickly on to our next match might be the best approach after today...thread reopened.
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:23 pmby tubby
Our first home game of the season and the perfect chance to put the Spurs result to rest. Im not sure how badley Skrtel/Carra are injured but we could well see Ayala or Kelly feature. Anyone know how far Agger or Riera are from returning from the team? Yossi should start ahead of Babel for this one.
Reina
Johnson Carra Ayala/Kelly Insua
Kuyt Mascherano Lucas Benayoun/Riera
Gerrard
Torres
Just to be safe I would be tempted to swap Gerard for Lucas. Lucas looks a lot more comfortable going forward rather than taking on the holding role. And having Strevie further back will ensure we do not get clogged in the centre today like we did with Huddleston.
I would recommend doing this until Aquilani is fit and in the team.
Anyway let's move onwards and upwards. 
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:27 pmby metalhead
We are doomed.. we just lost, no more title, stoke will batter us, Torres will leave us and Gerrard will move to Everton.
Nah.... I hope we destroy Stoke 
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:41 pmby The_Rock
Where is the poster who started the match threads last season (where we won all the match threads started by him, sorry forgot your username)...i hope he does it again. Benitez sure needs as much as he can get.
As for the match......lets just play our strongest team possible as it looks like skertel won't be playing.
Reina
Johnson Carra Ayala/Kelly Insua
Mascherano
Kuyt Gerrard Dossena
Benayoun
Torres
Strongest team available (when riera, agger, auerlio and aquaman are injured)...
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:49 pmby tubby
Dossena? Could be an option at LM but I think we should stick with Lucas and just shift Gerrard back some.
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:55 pmby The_Rock
bavlondon wrote:Dossena? Could be an option at LM but I think we should stick with Lucas and just shift Gerrard back some.
At this moment....all i want is a LM who has a little pace...can cross the ball...and has a powerful left foot shot. Dossena has all this. Plus he does track back like kuyt....so even when he doesn't play well...he makes it hard for the opposition. Apart from Riera (injured) & Benayoun (to play as support striker as i prefer gerrard to partner mascherano)....dossena is the only one who can play there.
Really hope we get silva now.....just give them 10 million + babel + voronin + lucas.....i reckon we could come up with some sort of deal.
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:56 pmby tubby
Apparantly Rafa is looking at bringing 2 more players in. I doubt we would have enough for Silva and then someone else.
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 7:13 pmby Dundalk
metalhead wrote:We are doomed.. we just lost, no more title, stoke will batter us,
Its funny because its true!
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 7:15 pmby The_Rock
bavlondon wrote:Apparantly Rafa is looking at bringing 2 more players in. I doubt we would have enough for Silva and then someone else.
So he still goes for quantity instead of quality ...no ? 
Ah well..... guess as long as benitez is the manager i have to bring down my expectation.....
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 8:26 pmby tubby
Yeah too right. Or else he may do something silly like challange Utd for the league or win European Cup. 
Posted:
Sun Aug 16, 2009 9:27 pmby bigmick
Obviously a big game now this one, and with Stoke winning comfortably at the weekend and our injury worries, it's a potential banana skin. I don't think it's time to go for anything too drastic myself, given that it's one we have to win I'd resist any temptation to move Gerrard back into midfield. It maybe we have to do that at some point soon, but at Home against Stoke I'd leave him advanced and sacrifice a bit of long term planning in favour of just winning this match. If we can get Gerrard on Torres on the ball in the final third we'll win the match, so lets leave things as they are I reckon.
My only unenforced change would be Benayoun who apparently did enough to get in front of Babel.
Plenty of people have said you don't win the title in the first few matches and they're right, but you can put yourself firmly out of it. Now I'm absolutely certain that the other challengers (big 5 I'm calling them now) will be looking to shake us off in the first few matches and cut the field down. Expect them all to win again in their next match, and in the case of Chelsea and the Mancs the next one after that as well. We got ourselves a start on them all last season, it isn't goign to happen this time around and failure to beat Stoke would put us under all sorts of pressure.
As I've said a couple of times, anymore than six points behind a joint leadership of Chelsea and Man Utd and by my reckonig you are gone for all money. That would be the case if it was after 5 games or 25 games.
vs 
me off it was the Stoke one. Delap with those annoying throw ins and we just couldn't get a single goal. I know this is only the 2nd game of the season but we must go into every single game wanting to fight for all 3 points if we are to take it that bit further this year. It was against the likes of Stoke last seasons where we dropped the points that ultimatley cost us the league so I hope we give them a hiding.