My team for Saturday!

Posted by

This is more fun, as I know it will not happen ever, but if I was picking the team and formation this weekend, I would fancy giving this a go.

Reina in Goal (easy of course),
Now for the best bit. I would have a diamond back four, with Carra or Agger as the last man. Not really sure about who, as you would have either, experience or pace, personally I would go for experience, while confidence is lacking. My left and right would be Aurelio and Johnson and then my first line of defense, wait for it, would be Masc.
Now in Midfield I would have Aquilani in free role and Gerrard staying central and getting forward, as much as possible, but also tracking back to help close down space, because Aquilani really does not look like he has the confidence yet to tackle hard and get stuck in. On right is Kuyt and left would be Yossi, leaving Torres and Ngog up front.
I would also ask for a slight change in the zonal marking tactic, as follows (well maybe not slight). Instead of having everyone back in the 18 yard box, for each attacking player in the box we would have someone in a zone, compariable to where that attacker is situated, but once the defender has his fix, he should follow any run by the attacker even if it takes him into another zone. Benefits from this are, more space for Pepe to come and catch (or punch), less confusion over who was picking up who. As for the Attackers coming in from outside the box, they will be picked up by our guys who are in zones on the edge of the box, this may help prevent some of the goals that bugged us last season, for example, attackers running in on the far post, from deep, unmarked. My final change would be, leaving Ngog, Torres and Aquilani up field. This would help us clear our lines and relieve constant pressure, as well as give us a great counter attack!

I promise you I have not been on anything while writing this, enjoy the game and never lose faith.

YNWA!

More Stories Aquilani Kuyt Ngog Portsmouth Reina

3 Comments

  1. Yossi should be playing on the right behind Kuyt ALWAYS. He is not good on the left. On the right he is good.

  2. i am glad you are not picking the team.

    Masch is too short and his strength is his work rate and you are taking that away from him. We currently employ the system were some people pick up space and some pick up players so the defense would continue to suffer as Gerrard is probably your only six foot tall player and he is not a prolific header of the ball.

    I like the idea of playing ngog and torres together but I doubt it will be tomorrow as Torres can not guaranteee us 90 mins and these are things a manager must consider.

  3. Craig I see your point, but I have basically picked a 3-5-2, hence having just 1 defensive midfielder, soldering in front of the back 3. As for saying we have mixed zonal defense type, please show me examples of our players tracking players attacking from outside the 18 yard box.

Comments are closed