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Posted

Not that anyone will care until tomorrow, but here's the build up thread for the FA Cup game...:)

 

I'll go for an unwanted 1-1 draw...

Posted

---------------Forster-----------------

Martina Stephens Yoshida McQueen

----------------Reed------------------

----------Clasie Højbjerg------------

Sims-----------------------Redmond

---------------Long------------------

Posted
Is it sold out yet?

 

No. Probably won't be far off by Saturday teatime, mostly just the Chapel again.

 

Any member who has eyes on a Wembley ticket would do worse than gambling £15 for this even if they've no intention in going, may help with qualifying number of games.

Posted
---------------Forster-----------------

Martina Stephens Yoshida McQueen

----------------Reed------------------

----------Clasie Højbjerg------------

Sims-----------------------Redmond

---------------Long------------------

 

Looks about right - hopefully they are buzzing enough and Arsenal aren't.

 

Would love a great performance from Reed, but I would imagine Oriol plays instead of him.

Posted

Maybe there has been a plan all along, with Leicester being the fluke last season Saints knew in all honesty we weren't going to challenge for the top spot, so a solid run in the cups delivers the prize goal if we win one: another European tour.

I believe I saw somewhere that Puel knows that the season is won and lost in the final 3rd, and his previous teams have had a surge in the latter part of the season.

So he rotates the squad and gets as many players as possible running at match fitness as possible without doing too much overall damage to the cause. Then you get into the situation we find ourselves in now where in 4 weeks time we will be playing in a Cup Final. Unlike Leicester who rolled out the usual suspects just about every week last season we have a squad of 20+ players who have all been involved, all ticking over "in the pits", who now all want to be in the starting 11 in a cup final and also a further 7 players if they don't get the nod, to be waiting on the subs bench. Now with all the rotation we have potential headache looming for the manager as now he has to start thinking about his starting 11, but the pot of players to pick from is bigger than the available spaces and all of that pot is pretty much match ready, so with the exception of the odd 1-2-3-4 players they know that Claude is going to rotate players in and out: the result being that everyone ups their game to be in the Cup Final Squad, no one is going to hang back to avoid a possible knock because they know they are replaceable so they have to remain on top of their game to be in with a chance of playing in a cup final. Resulting in the whole team performance stepping up. If we fail in winning the League Cup the better performances in the games leading up to the final potentially see the 6th round of the FA Cup to redress the disappointment, and so the process remains until the last day of the season.

 

Yes what I have written above might well be complete hogwash, in the first leg of the Semi at home v Liverpool we saw a very tidy performance. Burnley game they are battlers and everyone who turns up at Turf Moor is going to walk away having been in a hard scrap: we get done by a quirk of fate. Norwich we put out a rag tag team that on paper should have seen the job done, but end up bringing 2 players on who put the impetus in to win through. The Champions turn up Sunday, and despite the Tinkerman having a brainfart, we have enough about us to identify and exploit the pickle they are in with style. Then Wednesday night we step out onto one of the hardest grounds in the land, but where against Norwich we played like strangers, we worked as a disciplined team, no one was pointing fingers at anyone like we have seen, everyone got on and did a job in snuffing out the opposition, then punching them in the guts at the end.

 

Claude will likely have a little tinker on Saturday evening, but I bet whoever he picks will be pretty damn keen to be in the reckoning for that starting 11 on the 26th February.............. Could be fun.

Posted
I'm curious to see who'll replace Rodriguez as an attacking option. It would be great if Ryan Seager or Olufela Olomola could get some game time.

 

Olomola is injured, I believe. Ryan is still coming back to fitness after a serious injury.

 

Isgrove is fit, but seems to have gone backwards this season.

Posted

Not to be negative but after such a energy boost after winnings vs L-Pool this game can actually come to soon - the batteries are not fully charged yet since they are still buzzing from reaching the final. Just saying it can be a setback just because of that.

Posted
Maybe there has been a plan all along, with Leicester being the fluke last season Saints knew in all honesty we weren't going to challenge for the top spot, so a solid run in the cups delivers the prize goal if we win one: another European tour.

I believe I saw somewhere that Puel knows that the season is won and lost in the final 3rd, and his previous teams have had a surge in the latter part of the season.

So he rotates the squad and gets as many players as possible running at match fitness as possible without doing too much overall damage to the cause. Then you get into the situation we find ourselves in now where in 4 weeks time we will be playing in a Cup Final. Unlike Leicester who rolled out the usual suspects just about every week last season we have a squad of 20+ players who have all been involved, all ticking over "in the pits", who now all want to be in the starting 11 in a cup final and also a further 7 players if they don't get the nod, to be waiting on the subs bench. Now with all the rotation we have potential headache looming for the manager as now he has to start thinking about his starting 11, but the pot of players to pick from is bigger than the available spaces and all of that pot is pretty much match ready, so with the exception of the odd 1-2-3-4 players they know that Claude is going to rotate players in and out: the result being that everyone ups their game to be in the Cup Final Squad, no one is going to hang back to avoid a possible knock because they know they are replaceable so they have to remain on top of their game to be in with a chance of playing in a cup final. Resulting in the whole team performance stepping up. If we fail in winning the League Cup the better performances in the games leading up to the final potentially see the 6th round of the FA Cup to redress the disappointment, and so the process remains until the last day of the season.

 

Yes what I have written above might well be complete hogwash, in the first leg of the Semi at home v Liverpool we saw a very tidy performance. Burnley game they are battlers and everyone who turns up at Turf Moor is going to walk away having been in a hard scrap: we get done by a quirk of fate. Norwich we put out a rag tag team that on paper should have seen the job done, but end up bringing 2 players on who put the impetus in to win through. The Champions turn up Sunday, and despite the Tinkerman having a brainfart, we have enough about us to identify and exploit the pickle they are in with style. Then Wednesday night we step out onto one of the hardest grounds in the land, but where against Norwich we played like strangers, we worked as a disciplined team, no one was pointing fingers at anyone like we have seen, everyone got on and did a job in snuffing out the opposition, then punching them in the guts at the end.

 

Claude will likely have a little tinker on Saturday evening, but I bet whoever he picks will be pretty damn keen to be in the reckoning for that starting 11 on the 26th February.............. Could be fun.

A naive load of Hogwash indeed....

Posted
Olomola is injured, I believe. Ryan is still coming back to fitness after a serious injury.

 

Isgrove is fit, but seems to have gone backwards this season.

 

There's a lad called Olafebi (?) who seems to have got a lot of goals for the youth recently.

Posted
Would be funny if we knocked them out of both cups this season but Arsenal are FA cup specialists, so i'm expecting a narrow loss.

 

I think it all depends on how seriously they take it. The same goes for us. Games usually go to the team that wants it the most.

Posted

I read that Arsenal are really short in CM due to injuries. Also is Wenger going to be at the game or will he be on a ban by then? Couple of things that might work in our favour.

 

Which ever team Puel puts out I imagine they'll be desperate to impress with a cup final around the corner.

Posted

Anfield hangover might be an issue, but if we're fresh physically and Arsenal aren't at full tilt then we can take the game to them. Expect Hojbjerg to come in for Ward-Prowse and Long for Rodriguez.

Posted
There's a lad called Olafebi (?) who seems to have got a lot of goals for the youth recently.

 

I think he came off injured in the U18s FA youth cup defeat vs Man City last night

Posted

We can still put out a decent team.

 

--------------------Forster-------------------

 

Cedric-------Yoshi---------Stephens-----McQueen

 

----------------------Romeu--------------------------

 

-------PEH---------Clasie-------------Tadic----------

 

--------------Sims--------------Long----------------

Posted
We can still put out a decent team.

 

--------------------Forster-------------------

 

Cuco-------Yoshi---------Stephens-----McQueen

 

----------------------Romeu--------------------------

 

-------PEH---------Clasie-------------Tadic----------

 

--------------Sims--------------Long----------------

 

 

Cuco for Cedric I reckon and maybe see Bertand in and McQueen played as a winger with Tadic on the bench

Posted
Wenger given 4 match touchline ban with immediate effect

He'll still be in phone contact with whoever is standing in for him.Shame really as Claude could wind him up in French and we know how he reacts in English.

Posted

Full house tomorrow, there was just a handful of single seats left this afternoon, hopefully cup-final fever and an afternoon drinking will loosen a few up for a good cup atmosphere with 4,000 Gooners in the Northam. Whatever happens "Que Sera, Sera" should get a noisy run-out.

Posted
We can still put out a decent team.

 

--------------------Forster-------------------

 

Cedric-------Yoshi---------Stephens-----McQueen

 

----------------------Romeu--------------------------

 

-------PEH---------Clasie-------------Tadic----------

 

--------------Sims--------------Long----------------

 

I think Yoshi Romeu and Tadic need a rest maybe Gardos Reed

Posted
Full house tomorrow, there was just a handful of single seats left this afternoon.

 

Or... loads of people have bought tickets to bump themselves up the Wembley priority list and the place will be half empty... :)

Posted

Difficult to predict the score again given the injuries and necessary rotation, I'm pretty sure Arse will be treating this a lot more seriously than the league cup though. Don't want a bloody draw and replay!

Posted

Pessimistic about this one. Wenger will probably put out a stronger team than the ones we knocked out in the League cup this year and last (he won't want that to happen again), plus they're rested and we're not. And of course our lengthy injury list.

Posted
Difficult to predict the score again given the injuries and necessary rotation, I'm pretty sure Arse will be treating this a lot more seriously than the league cup though. Don't want a bloody draw and replay!

 

Pessimistic about this one. Wenger will probably put out a stronger team than the ones we knocked out in the League cup this year and last (he won't want that to happen again), plus they're rested and we're not. And of course our lengthy injury list.

 

Arsenal have a pretty big list of injuries and suspensions to. I read they only have two fit senior central midfielders, given the games they have coming up, they may rest them and play the kids in the middle which might give us a good chance.

Posted

Obviously would love to win this and go on another cup run, having won 3 games in a row without conceding would help keep up our momentum. However if we do lose take consolation in the fact the next round is the week before the league cup final.

It's quite possible we'll have a week off whereas United will play a 5th round game followed by a Europa league game on the Thursday before our final.

Posted
Wenger given 4 match touchline ban with immediate effect

 

I'm so disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing Arsene having a tantrum. It's never so spectacular when he's in the stands.

Posted
Obviously would love to win this and go on another cup run, having won 3 games in a row without conceding would help keep up our momentum. However if we do lose take consolation in the fact the next round is the week before the league cup final.

It's quite possible we'll have a week off whereas United will play a 5th round game followed by a Europa league game on the Thursday before our final.

 

....

Posted
I'm so disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing Arsene having a tantrum. It's never so spectacular when he's in the stands.

 

I wonder if they can get him to stand up on the ledge and do his "Statue of Liberty" impression?

Posted
I'm so disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing Arsene having a tantrum. It's never so spectacular when he's in the stands.

 

Were will they put him? in the directors seating I guess but just for the giggles I think the club should stick him in the middle of the Northam.

Posted

must admit that this is the first time i can remember not really being bothered if we go out of the cup this afternoon. Yes i would love us to beat Arsenal but i will still be happy if we have lost at full time in the knowledge we are already going to Wembley. In my mind the most important thing now for us is to avoid any more serious injuries and to pick up form in the league so we go to the cup final on a rich vein of form.

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