Team for Saturday | Vital Football

Team for Saturday

swans87

Vital Youth Team
Some changes needed vs Watford

Fabianski
Naughton
Amat
Van der Hoorn
Rangel

Fulton
Britton
Montero
Barrow
Sigurdsson

Borja
 
I've put Fulton in there because he's a box to box midfielder and puts in a good shift. Bring Fer on then when he starts to struggle
 
BrianMannebach - 18/10/2016 20:09

Fabianski; Naughton, Mawson, VDH, Rangel; Britton, Fer, Sigurdsson; Kingsley, Borja, Barrow
Mawson won't happen. If he was going to start Premier League games he would have by now. He's a prospect at this point and nothing more. I'm also certain Amat is leagues better than Mawson. Amat and VDH is the best centreback pairing I think. If we're going to play a defensive winger against Watford at home there's something horribly wrong with our squad. Barrow and Montero together for a first time.
 
I tweeted at the time that Mawson would be "one for the future" but some were adamant that a £5m signing would go straight into the side. Not going to happen unfortunately. van der Hoorn will do well to get a game it seems.

I'm hoping Montero is fit and starts, Taylor and Fernandez are dropped with VDH coming in. Borja also to come in for any of the midfielders apart from Britton.
 
MithrandirSwan - 18/10/2016 15:05

BrianMannebach - 18/10/2016 20:09

Fabianski; Naughton, Mawson, VDH, Rangel; Britton, Fer, Sigurdsson; Kingsley, Borja, Barrow
Mawson won't happen. If he was going to start Premier League games he would have by now. He's a prospect at this point and nothing more. I'm also certain Amat is leagues better than Mawson. Amat and VDH is the best centreback pairing I think. If we're going to play a defensive winger against Watford at home there's something horribly wrong with our squad. Barrow and Montero together for a first time.

How can you know that Amat is "leagues better" than Mawson? Have you seen him play in person? Asking sincerely. Barnsley fans seem convinced that he'll be as good or better than Stones. How can he gain experience if he doesn't play?
 
BrianMannebach - 19/10/2016 14:19

MithrandirSwan - 18/10/2016 15:05

BrianMannebach - 18/10/2016 20:09

Fabianski; Naughton, Mawson, VDH, Rangel; Britton, Fer, Sigurdsson; Kingsley, Borja, Barrow
Mawson won't happen. If he was going to start Premier League games he would have by now. He's a prospect at this point and nothing more. I'm also certain Amat is leagues better than Mawson. Amat and VDH is the best centreback pairing I think. If we're going to play a defensive winger against Watford at home there's something horribly wrong with our squad. Barrow and Montero together for a first time.

How can you know that Amat is "leagues better" than Mawson? Have you seen him play in person? Asking sincerely. Barnsley fans seem convinced that he'll be as good or better than Stones. How can he gain experience if he doesn't play?
No, I have not personally seen him play. But like I said, if he was going to start Premier League matches he would have done so when Fernandez was injured. Instead, Guidolin decided to go with Amat/VdH. To me that says FG didn't think Mawson was ready for a starting role. Now if Bradley thinks otherwise remains to be seen, but in my opinion, Mawson was in League 2 a season ago for a reason. He has potential but I doubt he's ready to start. As far as Amat is concerned, Amat is absolute class. Add in the fact that Amat is only one year older than Mawson and I think that says enough.

Honestly, I think a VdH, Mawson centreback pairing would be a recipe for a disaster in the PL. They haven't had any time to form a partnership, and neither are particularly good at the passing game (based on Alfie's passing data from whoscored). Amat is, and as such, he should be in any potential centreback pairing.
 
Fabianski
Rangel
Vdh
Amat/fernandez
Naughton
Barrow
Britton
Sigurdsson
Montero
Lorente
Borja

Alhough fernandez has been terrible so far he held up better than amat with williams. With vdh making amat more stable maybe he could do the same with fernandez. I see amat as a liability, better at the moment than fernandez but after some horrendously bad attempts how he hasnt been sent off this season i dont know.
Diamond in the middle letting britton control the game. Lorente is a great target man and holds the ball well and borja seems to be more happy moving around. Could play well together.

 
I wouldn't either to be honest, for Amat to be "class" he wouldn't make the mistakes he made on Saturday, and he'd do well alongside any centre back. But Fernandez next to him makes his look mediocre.

I don't understand some fans' logic when they think that an entire new back four would solve our problems. Lets just chuck in 2 new signings as centre backs and see how they get on!? And what if that doesn't work either?

If it was down to me, I'd be looking to try and make VdH and Amat work for consistency. The pair were up against two of the best attacking sides in the League and came out of it very well, yet against Arsenal, another quality attacking side, Amat, now alongside FF, looked awful.
 
KevinE - 19/10/2016 16:42

I wouldn't either to be honest, for Amat to be "class" he wouldn't make the mistakes he made on Saturday, and he'd do well alongside any centre back. But Fernandez next to him makes his look mediocre.

I don't understand some fans' logic when they think that an entire new back four would solve our problems. Lets just chuck in 2 new signings as centre backs and see how they get on!? And what if that doesn't work either?

If it was down to me, I'd be looking to try and make VdH and Amat work for consistency. The pair were up against two of the best attacking sides in the League and came out of it very well, yet against Arsenal, another quality attacking side, Amat, now alongside FF, looked awful.

Regarding your new center back pairing comment: If it doesn't work, then it's the same as it is now. But if it works...
 
Jonesy314 - 19/10/2016 22:40

Fabianski
Rangel
Vdh
Amat/fernandez
Naughton
Barrow
Britton
Sigurdsson
Montero
Lorente
Borja

Alhough fernandez has been terrible so far he held up better than amat with williams. With vdh making amat more stable maybe he could do the same with fernandez. I see amat as a liability, better at the moment than fernandez but after some horrendously bad attempts how he hasnt been sent off this season i dont know.
Diamond in the middle letting britton control the game. Lorente is a great target man and holds the ball well and borja seems to be more happy moving around. Could play well together.

Welcome to the forum, thanks for registering and getting involved here, hope to see you stick around. :7:

It would be interesting to see how van der Hoorn can affect or possibly improve Fernandez like he did with Amat.

Quite a few fans have submitted their formations/line-ups and have put two right backs in, with Naughton at LB which says a lot about our two natural left back options.

A 4-4-2? Can't see Sigurdsson dropping deeper though than usual? Having said that, he's been operating a lot deeper this season I feel.
 
Looking at last season fernandez wasnt anywhere as poor with williams. I certainly think its worth a shot, eitherway fernandez amat is not the solution!

I was gutted when taylor kept getting dropped but seeing the difference naughton has had especially his game as LB tells me hes more of a natural than the others. Him and Rangel also offer alot wrt going forward, which we need.

Id keep sigurdsson CAM but as you said hes sloely dropping deeper. But with 2 uptop the LB/RB wouldnt be forward as much meaning CDM would be more of a CM allowing sigurdson to push forward more.

I think both new strikers have shown they have alot to offer but i think other than pace together they have everything. But with the 2 we would have outside pace in the middle isnt such an issue.

Gone are they days where games are being won 1-0 most teams are capable of putting 3+ goals away and we dont have the strength at back to prevent this so i think our only option is fire with fire and score more. When we go forward and look like we want to play i really believe we are one of the best in the league. I've just not seen that passion for sometime and think as soon as we score we try to shut up shop. If we started believing we could score 3 goals and win games and keep pressing we will.
 
I think self belief and confidence is a big issue within the squad now. It's the mindset they now appear to be in, there's only a goal or 2 in us, if we score first the mindset is "lets defend it now" rather than looking to score a second. Some of our misses in front of goal are worse than ever, 3 or 4 at Arsenal not to mention a couple against Liverpool.
 
Mentality from FG score and lock up... doesnt work in the PL, chelski got away with it for a couple of years as jose loves it. But the PL is regularly having games with 5 + goals so hes falling behind reflective in his current utd run and you look at the names on that team sheet. We dont have a team for that! I think we also have a tendancy to stick with poor players because of a couple of good games. Im preparing my self for the bombardment of disagreements but i think Fer is out of his depths in the PL. His goals are right place right time situations, his passing is terrible thats when hes not trying to dance around a top class midfield single handedly and he is usually lost out of position. Unfortunately when we are not scoring and playing terrible a goal scorer regardless of circumstances is disguised as a good player. Time and confidence in the rest of the team will prove this one though.
 
Fer will divide opinion all season, I still can't decide on him, but he's just no holding player, and is suited to playing an attacking role. Unless Bradley can somehow improve him and get him to make more of an effort and track back more.
 
Thats it though, i dont believe heas suited to the attacking role. Look over his games ither than thr goals he has done nothing at all. So hes provided us with about a total of 5 minutes of good quality all season. Hes taking up a position and is essentilly dead weight for the majority of the game. Hes probabmy created more opportunities for the oppositions than he has us with his poor choices and bll retention...
 
As mistake ridden as Williams' performances were on occasions last season it has to be said that we have been far more vulnerable without our former captain leading the back line. Amat is a decent centre back but needs someone stronger alongside him, both Fernandez and Van Der Hoorn do not fit the bill and of course Mawson is untried at this level. Seems Jenkins gambled that we would manage without bringing in an experienced defender this summer and unfortunately so far results show that we are leaking unnecessary goals that have already cost us points.

Not sure what Bob can do to rectify this in the short term but his experiment of reuniting Amat and Fernandez certainly backfired at the Emirates, I'd be inclined to use Amat and Van Der Hoorn on Saturday as they did look a better pairing in Guidolin's final games.
 
Why not give mawson his test. We are out of options at this point. The closest thing to a reasonable pairing was vdh and amat but if all options are poor the opportunity for mawson could potentially ve worth the gamble... as it stands though certaing vdh as i think he will strengthen which ever he is paired with.
 
Jonesy314 - 20/10/2016 08:51

Thats it though, i dont believe heas suited to the attacking role. Look over his games ither than thr goals he has done nothing at all. So hes provided us with about a total of 5 minutes of good quality all season. Hes taking up a position and is essentilly dead weight for the majority of the game. Hes probabmy created more opportunities for the oppositions than he has us with his poor choices and bll retention...

I know what you mean, yet I bet you that Leroy Fer will be seen as a regular for the season simply for those goals. Not to mention the pressure he puts us under when he loses the ball.