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Thank you for visiting! est189 will soon be closing its doors (do forums have doors?) please visit the following thread - (to wail & cry perhaps?)
https://www.est1892.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=4002484#post4002484
Thanjk you.
Paul.S
You've done sweet fa all season Arthur. Nows your time to shine.
"When a man insults my country I insult him, by taking his woman" Tony Yeboah
"looking through your posts since 2007 and what you have consistently written about my football team I have come to the conclusion that if you had 1 more brain cell you would be a plant .. your father was a hamster and your mother smells of elder berries, I fart in your general direction ..." Nicey
Based on who's likely to be available I'd say that'll be the starting XI.
Get off to a good early start and grab an early goal a la Barca 2019 then we'll give ourselves a small chance, a small chance but keeping them out will be very hard.
I fully expect them falling over and rolling around from the first minute.
You know what? That trio would not bother me to see in the starting XI. You could even swap Milner in for Fabinho and I would be somewhat confident of a workmanlike but quite solid performance in the middle.
Jones and especially Keita are good against a press. Milner, even at 37, has good games in him as long as his minutes are managed and he does not have too many starts close toegther.
In terms of raw ability they would be outgunned by the options Real have in the middle, but that trio up for it and willing to force/drag their Real counterparts into battle of presses could make things more even in the middle than might be expected.
Is a game that I wish we had Thiago available for though.
I don't hate people. I just feel better when they aren't around.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness
A year ago (I know Gakpo and Darwin where not with us then but just assume they were for a moment) we would look at that starting XI and see no problems with it.
We would look at that back line and say it is the bext back four we have available ( three of that back four still being in their 20s now) and one of the best back fours in the world. We would say we have the best keeper in the world (personally think he is still either the best or in the top three at the very least).
Now we look at the back four and have doubts about three of them (VVD, TAA and Roberston, though maybe less so about Roberston than the other two).
Fabinho and Milner as a duo vs Madrid back in 2022 we might have thought that they could do a job, but now Fabinho on current form worries me more than Milner because with Milner you still tend to know what you are going to get as long as he is rested.
They only part of the team that stands up still to a large degree is up front, even with Salah not being the force he was and some of the others still settling into the team. Our front line we still know can hurt other teams as long as they get service from the seven players begind them on the pitch. The big problem this season being how slow, obvious and sporadic that help seems to be,
I don't hate people. I just feel better when they aren't around.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness
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