Let’s Get to Work

By: Daryl | May 25th, 2009

First of all, thanks for all the kind words on the last post. I was more than a little surprised by that to be honest.

Second, welcome to the management team! The new plan is to put all major decisions up for debate here on the blog. We’ll use a combination of questions, options, discussions, polls and everything else. I’m not 100% sure how this is going to work, but it’s going to be fun finding out.

The only thing I’d ask is that everyone tries to stay on topic. For example, if the decision being discussed is: “Who should start up front?” then telling me to sign a new left back isn’t really very helpful. Plus, young Ryan Bertrand is doing a surprisingly good job. So there.

Quick refresher: Our current league situation can be seen here. At the halfway point of 19 games, we’re sitting third and still just about involved in the title race. We’re also in the last sixteen of the Champions League, where we’ll be facing Barcelona in February. Be afraid.

OK, are you ready? Then let’s get to work. Here is my immediate fixture list/schedule:

So we’ve got an FA Cup game away to Watford, who are 12th in the Championship. One week after that we play Man Utd.

For the Man Utd game, I’ll put some tactical options on the table. But for the Watford game, we’ll keep it simple and play the attacking 4-1-2-1-2 that’s pretty much been our default. It looks like this:

We played three days earlier (that 1-0 win over Bolton) and play Man Utd next (albeit seven days from now). So, we have some tired legs in the squad. I’d love to give some fringe players a run-out, but don’t want to weaken the team too much. It’s the eternal cup conundrum.

Click here to take a look at the current state of my squad:

So, here are my questions for the FA Cup game vs Watford:

1. Given or Akinfeev in goal? I like to give Given a run-out, but don’t want to annoy Akinfeev.

2. Bertrand or Enrique at LB? Enrique needs games, but Bertrand’s on a roll.

3. With Jonas injured, who plays wide right?

4. Do I try and work Sneijder, Wijnaldum, Lien and Dzagoev into my midfield? All these youngsters need games, but I don’t want to weaken my team too much.

5. Who plays up front? Laurito, Lewandowski and Bo are injured. Marquinhos is off doing Olympic qualifying with Brazil U-23s. Only first team options are The Pog and Arshavin, but should I give young Thomas Knudsen a debut?

Let me know what you think. And if anyone wants to answer those questions by sharing what their line up would be, then that works too.