Port Vale (a): What 3 Things Do We Need To Do To Beat Them?

[Jules]

What 3 things do we need to do to beat Port Vale on Saturday?

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[hulloutpost]

After the euphoria of Wembley and the Ipswich speculation that doesn't appear to be going away the emphasis this week should be on complete focus. One is in the past and the other will not be resolved until Ipswich make an announcement, so for the purposes of Port Vale it is critical that anything but the forthcoming match is dismissed from the players mind.

As for on the pitch the old maxim of 'If it aint bust' could hold sway so far as the formation goes. The Imps are grinding out results impressively with the 4-3-3 system so we should go with that. There were some doubts as to how effective it could be on a big pitch which The Valiants do have but successive matches on similarly large Carlisle and Wembley surfaces have shown against a decent standard of opposition that we can still be very effective.

Personnel wise all the players seem to be fresh as Danny trains them to be in April and they are certainly playing as a cohesive unit. Whilst no single player is week on week playing as the standout player this in itself is encouraging. It demonstrates that the side is absolutely functioning as a team with different individuals contributing key moments be it defensively or in attack. Once more continuity is the order of the day - provided there are no injuries - with the only real selection headache at centre half. Both Waterfall and Wharton have performed tremendously so it would appear to be a choice between experience or the balance of a left footer. Of course both could play if Bostwick returned to bolster in midfield with it being an away game, but on balance DC may well make the tough call on which centre half misses out.