Strongest Eleven

[Guest Rey Mysterio]

Wait a minute.

 

We haven't even seen Tiote play yet, and he walks into most people's strongest XI's?

Say him at the WC and smiths dogshit.

 

It's almost irrelevant what he was like in the WC.

Yeah but we've seen smith for years now and he's crap.

 

Was O.K. against Man Utd and quite brilliant against Villa, though.

 

Agreed. Our best player against Man Utd imo.

 

You cannot have been at the game then. We may aswell have played with 10 that night. 9 if you include Nolan.

[Dave]

Wait a minute.

 

We haven't even seen Tiote play yet, and he walks into most people's strongest XI's?

Say him at the WC and smiths dogshit.

 

It's almost irrelevant what he was like in the WC.

Yeah but we've seen smith for years now and he's crap.

 

Was O.K. against Man Utd and quite brilliant against Villa, though.

 

Agreed. Our best player against Man Utd imo.

 

[buzza]

Mine is a 4-2-3-1:

----------------Krul--------

Perch---Willy---Colo----Enrique

---------Tiote-----Barton-----

Routledge---Arfa-------Jonas

--------------AC9------------

[54]

Harper

 

S.Taylor

Williamson

Coloccini

Enrique

 

Routledge

Tiote

Barton

Jonas

 

Ben Arfa

 

Carroll

 

 

Ben arfa playing of Carroll in a 4-4-1-1 formation.

[Colocho]

Ben Arfa and Tiote are not going to start until someone fucks up.

[Ryan_Taylor]

Ben Arfa and Tiote are not going to start until someone f***s up.

 

Nah, Ben Arfa will be starting fairly sharpish I reckon, couple of sub appearances first maybe, or until we lose a game

[Jamie]

Harper

 

Raylor

Collocini

Williamson

Enrique

 

Routledge

Barton

Nolan

Gutierrez

 

Ben Arfa

Carroll

[ohmelads]

Need to see what Ben Arfa and Tiote are like really, particularly which position Ben Arfa is most effective in.

 

Think it'll be 4-4-2 at home and against weaker Prem teams and 4-5-1 against the big boys.

[Cronky]

I'm sure Tiote was signed as a first team player, and we should be seriously disappointed if he can't displace Smith.

 

Smith is an intelligent player, but his lack of pace will always limit his contribution. He hasn't been the same player since that bad injury.

[Cunning_Linguist]

Harper

 

S.Taylor

Williamson

Coloccini

Enrique

 

Routledge

Tiote

Barton

Jonas

 

Ben Arfa

 

Carroll

 

 

Ben arfa playing of Carroll in a 4-4-1-1 formation.

 

+1

[Cronky]

Harper

 

S.Taylor

Williamson

Coloccini

Enrique

 

Routledge

Tiote

Barton

Jonas

 

Ben Arfa

 

Carroll

 

 

Ben arfa playing of Carroll in a 4-4-1-1 formation.

 

+1

 

I can't wait to see that front six in action. There's goals there. It looks well balanced, with a threat down the middle and down the wings.

 

Back four is still a bit dodgy, even if Campbell plays, but we're moving in the right direction.

[Hanshithispantz]

Smith gets far too much stick in my opinion, you don't have to be able to perfect Xavi like passes to be usefull to a team, he does most of the dogwork in midfield and stops the opponents momentum quite well, as he showed against Villa (and to a degree against Man U).

 

He's more of a 'certain game' man though, I don't realy see the need of him against the likes of Blackpool, who aren't realy going to challenge us physicaly (ala Wolves) and they havn't realy got a dangerman in midfield who we need to seriously worry about them getting the ball too, atleast not to the point that Barton cannot handle.

 

I think in the other games we could get away with Barton and Nolan in the middle with Ben Arfa behind Carroll.

[Shayno]

            Krul

Raylor  Saylor Colo Enrique

        Barton  Guthrie

HBA        Nolan      Jonas

            Carroll

Haven't seen or know enough about Perch, Gosling or Tiote to put in a strongest 11.

[Guest tommykay]

                    Harper

 

Simpson  Williamson  Colo Enrique

 

Ben Arfa  Tiote  Barton  Guttierez

       

                  Nolan

 

                  Carrol

 

back up

 

                      Krul

 

Perch  Taylor    Campbell  Kadar

 

Routledge  Guthrie Gosling  Lovenkrands

 

                          Xisco

 

                      Ameobi

 

                     

 

 

[JJ7]

Personally, I thought Smith was awful against Man Utd. He wasn't in the game other than one camera block. That said, he was very good in the Villa and Wolves games. Far better than I thought he could still player. He has admitted though that he's finished at the top level, which is pretty worrying when we come up against the leagues better sides. Him and Butt were shocking in the relegation season, not because of effort or anything, just because they're past it. Not their faults.

 

As for Simpson, he just isn't very good. A Championship player for me. I know it was only one game, but to me last season he was ripped appart against Forest at home. I would be worried having to rely on him at right back.

 

Pleased with the rest of the team though. I would go for:

 

Krul, Perch, Williamson, Colo, Enrique, Barton, Tiote, Jonas, Nolan, Carroll, Ben Arfa.

433 at home. 

[David28]

Personally, I thought Smith was awful against Man Utd. He wasn't in the game other than one camera block. That said, he was very good in the Villa and Wolves games. Far better than I thought he could still player. He has admitted though that he's finished at the top level, which is pretty worrying when we come up against the leagues better sides. Him and Butt were shocking in the relegation season, not because of effort or anything, just because they're past it. Not their faults.

 

As for Simpson, he just isn't very good. A Championship player for me. I know it was only one game, but to me last season he was ripped appart against Forest at home. I would be worried having to rely on him at right back.

 

Pleased with the rest of the team though. I would go for:

 

Krul, Perch, Williamson, Colo, Enrique, Barton, Tiote, Jonas, Nolan, Carroll, Ben Arfa.

433 at home. 

 

I agree, about Butt.

But Smith hardly played any part in our relegation season.

 

[Hanshithispantz]

yeah, he played like 6 games according to wikipedia

[Guest BlacknWhiteArmy]

Personally, I thought Smith was awful against Man Utd. He wasn't in the game other than one camera block. That said, he was very good in the Villa and Wolves games. Far better than I thought he could still player. He has admitted though that he's finished at the top level, which is pretty worrying when we come up against the leagues better sides. Him and Butt were shocking in the relegation season, not because of effort or anything, just because they're past it. Not their faults.

 

As for Simpson, he just isn't very good. A Championship player for me. I know it was only one game, but to me last season he was ripped appart against Forest at home. I would be worried having to rely on him at right back.

 

Pleased with the rest of the team though. I would go for:

 

Krul, Perch, Williamson, Colo, Enrique, Barton, Tiote, Jonas, Nolan, Carroll, Ben Arfa.

433 at home. 

 

He said he was finished at the top level as a striker, not a midfielder. Or is this a new quote?

[Guest Tall Striker]

How people can say our best line up is beyond me, since we've seen fuck all of Gosling, Tiote, Ben Arfa and (to an extent) Perch. This thread should be saved for December time.

[Hanshithispantz]

How people can say our best line up is beyond me, since we've seen f*** all of Gosling, Tiote, Ben Arfa and (to an extent) Perch. This thread should be saved for December time.

it's just for the sake of discusion...

[dilligaf]

How people can say our best line up is beyond me, since we've seen fuck all of Gosling, Tiote, Ben Arfa and (to an extent) Perch. This thread should be saved for December time.

 

This

 

[Gallowgate Toon]

How people can say our best line up is beyond me, since we've seen f*** all of Gosling, Tiote, Ben Arfa and (to an extent) Perch. This thread should be saved for December time.

Because you can do the strongest 11 'on paper'. For example Hatem Ben Arfa is technically the best player in the squad and possesses more natural talent in his little finger than the competition for his position, Kevin Nolan, therefore he should be in the strongest 11.

[buzza]

---------------Krul (still beleive harps is over hill)

Saylor-----Willy----Colo-----Enrique

Routledge---Tiote---Barton----Jonas

--------------Ben arfa-------------

----------------Carrol---------------

 

N.B. I would have nolan instead of Ben arfa for away games if the lad's work rate is questionable...

[James]

How people can say our best line up is beyond me, since we've seen f*** all of Gosling, Tiote, Ben Arfa and (to an extent) Perch. This thread should be saved for December time.

Because you can do the strongest 11 'on paper'. For example Hatem Ben Arfa is technically the best player in the squad and possesses more natural talent in his little finger than the competition for his position, Kevin Nolan, therefore he should be in the strongest 11.

 

Talent is one thing, but it is more important how you are applying the talent you've got. On that basis, Nolan currently gets to keep his AMC role, and Jonas, Routledge and Ben Arfa should be battling for the final two attacking midfield places.

[buzza]

Jose Mourinho interview in a couple of Spanish dailies yesterday, his comment was that the two central defenders and the two midfielders in front of them always form the spine of his teams. The second point I found interesting was that the sum of the parts is always more than the individual parts themselves, what he was saying that on paper sometimes two "known" names seem much more than two lesser names but they can function much worse than those supposedly inferior ones. Good example would be Lampard -Gerrard axis for england, Barry + whoever worked much better (sum of the parts..).

Apply this to our team and I think we are quite strong now, but who is our best centre midfield COMBO???