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Its live - Squad selection discussion
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Seems most likely, going by the friendly against Preston. One half had that pairing and the other had Skrtel and Wisdom I think.
In the 11 v 11 training match, his notes were on the LFC forum today and the centre back pairings were different, it was Agger and Skrtel on one team and Toure and Wisdom on the other. Just experimenting I suppose but most likely it will be Johnson, Agger, Toure and Enrique.
These are the line-ups he had for the training match.
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It would appear you have put RVP, Bale and Walcott into your team and then tried to justify cheap defenders because you have no cash left! Your defense is incredibly weak. City kept 18 clean sheets last season, wouldn't call that low. That being said, despite having a terrible defence this is one of the better combinations I've seen with RVP and Bale. I won't be considering the Dutchman though, just can't justify £14m.
Please get rid of McShane ASAP - he shouldn't even be in teams as a joke.
Well yeah thats fair enough. But my point is that if I thought expensive defenders were important than I would have managed to get them in somehow. Maybe replace Ricky with Anelka or something similar. But I dont think they justify not having big attackers. Last year there was a period at the beginning of the season where nearly everyone had a City defender... it seemed like a must, yet they somehow managed to concede in nearly all of their opening games. And dont even get me started on how poor United's defence was in the first half of the season. Chelsea didn't exactly stand out, Spurs didn't stand out and Liverpool (I have mignolet) and Arsenal had about the only expensive defenders worth looking at. Year by year it's the same story, mid-table teams or newly promoted teams shock the league with resilient defences. Swansea, Norwich, West Ham and of course Stoke all had big purple patches last year. Their defenders can be got for 4.5-5 million.
Probably the most enticing thing about cheap defenders is their dependability. Unless you buy Hart or (more than likely) Kompany too it's a toss-up between 2 other CB's, 3 RB's and 2 LB's for starting berths. Chelsea is also pretty much rocket science when selecting a defender who will start week in week out because it probably wont happen.
Thats about all of my justification done. I think I justify having RVP and Bale anyway. But each to their own. I'll just finish by saying that, between them, RVP and Bale got 47 goals and 24 assist last season. And Bale is a midfielder.
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Well yeah thats fair enough. But my point is that if I thought expensive defenders were important than I would have managed to get them in somehow. Maybe replace Ricky with Anelka or something similar. But I dont think they justify not having big attackers. Last year there was a period at the beginning of the season where nearly everyone had a City defender... it seemed like a must, yet they somehow managed to concede in nearly all of their opening games.
And dont even get me started on how poor United's defence was in the first half of the season. Chelsea didn't exactly stand out, Spurs didn't stand out and Liverpool (I have mignolet) and Arsenal had about the only expensive defenders worth looking at. Year by year it's the same story, mid-table teams or newly promoted teams shock the league with resilient defences. Swansea, Norwich, West Ham and of course Stoke all had big purple patches last year. Their defenders can be got for 4.5-5 million.
I'm not trying to argue, but the above is simply incorrect. Chelsea kept a clean sheet in 5 of their opening 6 games last season, and Arsenal kept clean sheets in their opening three games. Granted, United and City were bad defensively last Aug/Sep but this is not 'year by year the same story'. Last year is clouding your view. Anyway, I'm not arguing in favour of bulking up on your defence? I'm saying you are forced into making it very weak because of RVP.Chelsea is also pretty much rocket science when selecting a defender who will start week in week out because it probably wont happen.
John Terry.Thats about all of my justification done. I think I justify having RVP and Bale anyway.
Not even close unfortunately!But each to their own
Exactly - the best part about the game is the fact that there is never a right or wrong team. I try to go with what is statistically the best option. See my post in the RVP vs Bale thread if you fancy a friendly wager with RVP in your team 0 -
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Well yeah thats fair enough. But my point is that if I thought expensive defenders were important than I would have managed to get them in somehow. Maybe replace Ricky with Anelka or something similar. But I dont think they justify not having big attackers. Last year there was a period at the beginning of the season where nearly everyone had a City defender... it seemed like a must, yet they somehow managed to concede in nearly all of their opening games. And dont even get me started on how poor United's defence was in the first half of the season. Chelsea didn't exactly stand out, Spurs didn't stand out and Liverpool (I have mignolet) and Arsenal had about the only expensive defenders worth looking at. Year by year it's the same story, mid-table teams or newly promoted teams shock the league with resilient defences. Swansea, Norwich, West Ham and of course Stoke all had big purple patches last year. Their defenders can be got for 4.5-5 million.
Probably the most enticing thing about cheap defenders is their dependability. Unless you buy Hart or (more than likely) Kompany too it's a toss-up between 2 other CB's, 3 RB's and 2 LB's for starting berths. Chelsea is also pretty much rocket science when selecting a defender who will start week in week out because it probably wont happen.
Thats about all of my justification done. I think I justify having RVP and Bale anyway. But each to their own. I'll just finish by saying that, between them, RVP and Bale got 47 goals and 24 assist last season. And Bale is a midfielder.
I agree with a lot of what you say there. There is some great cheap defender options this year. Im also firmly in the rvp and bale camp and think its quite possible to have a strong team with them both.
At the moment I have
Westwood Boruc
Toure Coleman Ramage Turner Wilson
Bale Walcott Shelvey Bellamy Digkgacoi
RVP Rooney Bent
Defenders Id play coleman and toure most weeks and then rotate turner and Wilson depending on which players at home(they rotate perfectly)
Midfielders Bale/Walcott rotate perfectly for having a capt option at home. The other 3 are provisional Ill see how pre season goes.
Forwards Rooney and Bent will be in my team if they move to Chelsea & newcastle respectively if not Ill trade Rooney down to sturridge and upgrade Bent to Bony .0 -
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RE: Sunderland's goalkeeper situation.
Not even us fans have a clue who will start the season, but if I had to bet money on it I'd say Westwood will start the first few games at least.
The club have been fairly adamant since Mignolet signed for Liverpool that they want to give him a chance given that he has been patient ever since he was brought to the club when at that time nearly everyone felt that he would be first choice ahead of Mignolet.
Essentially I think it will be his to lose, but it might not take much for it to happen considering we spent a couple of million on Mannone. If Westwood had full faith I think we'd have brought in a kid and let him mature a bit with no pressure (like what we did with Mignolet initially).
Either way it shouldn't make too much of a difference, both are £4.5m and we should know who starts in week 1 at least before the week 1 deadline, but I would urge caution for those picking Sunderland goalkeepers/defenders. We are usually one of the better bottom half teams for picking up clean sheets, but 6 of our first 8 home games are against the two Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea. I wouldn't bet on a clean sheet in any of those games. Our first three games are winnable, but after that there's long periods where we could fail to do much up until around the middle of December.
On a different note:
I have been spending a bit of time looking at the mid-priced striking options. One thing to consider is that both Bony and Van Wolfswinkel rotate about as well as one could hope for for teams who are a fair distance apart and not bound by the same police force looking after home games (32 out of the 38 games). Swansea have an extremely tough first few weeks, but as we've seen time and time again in this league a top striker will score goals even against tougher teams, perhaps even more so when they are new to the league and defenders don't have as much experience of them. It's possible to get a heavy hitter up front (such as Rooney, if he goes to Chelsea or Aguero) in alongside both of those without too much difficulty and still making a very balanced team, so if they can adapt to the Premier League then both of those will make an excellent 2 of 3 up top and for a reasonable price (although I feel Bony should have been about £0.5m cheaper than he is).
For those that want proven Premier League goals, Berbatov and any Chelsea striker will rotate every gameweek during the whole season so again if Rooney goes there it's something to consider. He also rotates with Bony 32 out of 38 games and Van Wolfswinkel 36 out of 38 so if you wanted to combine Berbatov and Bony/Wolf you could be sure of at least one of those two having a home game almost every week. Just typing that now makes me realise how Berbatov seems an excellent option despite the bad start. You're almost guaranteed 15 goals with him for a very fair price, and from gameweek 6 on his fixtures get quite kind with the odd couple of tough games in a row thrown in. Kone also rotates extremely well with the two new boys.
Rooney/Aguero + two of Berbatov/Bony/Van Wolfsinkel//Kone etc seems very manageable which is good news for those that want to try and get a few heavy hitters in all positions.
Just a quick note in midfield and one differential that I haven't spotted in many teams so far would be David Silva. £0.5m cheaper than his counterparts such as Hazard and Walcott, £1.0m cheaper than Cazorla and £1.5m cheaper than Mata, with better starting fixtures (presuming Chelsea don't have a week 1 DGW) he is worth seriously considering. It's hardly an earth shattering revelation I know, but if Chelsea don't get that DGW I think I'll throw him in ahead of Hazard who I currently have in there. He'll more than likely play just off the front every week too as City haven't gone for another player in that position after missing out on Isco with Yaya sitting further back alongside Fernandinho, so has a great opportunity to get back to his 2011-2012 best.
Finally, I know a lot of people like to use their wildcards within the first month or month and a half (myself included) so if you're planning your team with that in mind it might be worth taking a look at this fixture difficulty table combined by the excellent Fantasy Football Mad website:
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