The "Momo is nearly fit again/Gerrard at CM" thread!

[cadmium]

Thing is though who'd you prefer on the right, Gerrard or Pennant?

[Guest]

His target is the Chavs on Jan 20th. He should start running again this week.
Or so I heard.

Cheers buddy and sorry for my flawed english. Are you a professor ?

[AFII]

I don't think Riise is good enough to be able to play as a left wing back.

I think that Rafa will go back to 4-5-1 next season in most games.

------------------Reina
Finnan--------Carra----Agger------Riise/Insua
-----------Alonso------Sissoko
Alves-------------Gerrard----------Kewell
------------------Kuyt

He may change it to 4-4-2 against weaker teams with one of Alonso/Sissoko/Gerrard rested with another striker playing instead of one of them. Alves can also replace Finnan leaving another player to take his place, maybe Gerrard in some games.

The point is that many of the players can switch positions during a game without any problems.

[CAD]

Thing is though who'd you prefer on the right, Gerrard or Pennant?

If it is the same as saying Alonso/Momo at CM, I would go for Pennant any day of the week!

[Rigadon]

If I had to pick two out of three I'd go with Gerrard and Sissoko.

[CAD]

We got our highest ever points total last season. There is a reason for that too. Look at it from the perspective of creating the right balance rather than where SG plays best. You should at least question your postion.
BTW Why is the free role argument wearing thin?

The goals thing is also a bit of a bum steer at least 7 of those CM goals came against, to quote DJS "pub teams" in the CL qualifiers.

I am shocked, Speedy! I have never been so insulted in my life. Question myself? Never!!!


*walks away questioning himself*


Ps: If the price of the "free role" is a stale non attacking CM then it's not worth it. We lost all the important matches last season with the Alonso/Momo CM. It's not the way forward. "Thrust me. I'm the Messias and I should know - I have followed a few", as they say

[Maestro]

Cheers buddy and sorry for my flawed english. Are you a professor ?

Eh?

[El Jefecito]

I am shocked, Speedy! I have never been so insulted in my life. Question myself? Never!!!


*walks away questioning himself*


Ps: If the price of the "free role" is a stale non attacking CM then it's not worth it. We lost all the important matches last season with the Alonso/Momo CM. It's not the way forward. "Thrust me. I'm the Messias and I should know - I have followed a few", as they say

See I don't agree with the stale thing. Rafa has brought into two mobile strikers who can cover the flanks in the final 1/3. This works, we've seen it over the last couple of games, where TBH Stevie has not had as much impact in the attacking 1/3 as he usually does.

[palli]

With Momo returning we will have options, we can't play all three (Gerrard, Momo, Alonso) in every game, but we will have the option of fielding all three when necessary. I think we have plenty of options now so we could play either a 4-4-2 formation or a 4-3-3 (4-5-1) fromation.

In a 4-4-2 formation we will be able to rest on of the trio and use players such as Pennant, Gonzalez, Garcia, Aurelio and Kewell out wide and a selection of 4 strikers fighting for 2 starting spots.

I would field the following 4-4-2 lineup:

-------------Reina-------------
Finnan--Carragher--Agger--Riise
Pennant-Gerrard-Alonso-Gonzalez
---------Bellamy--Kuyt---------

In a 4-3-3 formation with Gerrard, Alonso and Momo in midfield we have more options. Garcia, Gonzalez and Kewell all can play as a 3rd striker in 3 man strikeforce where the strikers take over part of the role of a wingman but also Bellamy and Kuyt are well suited for playing out wide in 3 man strike force. But in this formation we would need support from the fullbacks (wingbacks) and I'm not sure they would be able to provide the necessary support for this system, Aurelio is well suited as a fullback in this system on th left but we would need a more attack minded fullback on the right.

I would field the following 4-3-3 lineup:

--------------Reina--------------
Finnan--Carragher--Agger--Aurelio
------Gerrard-Alonso-Sissoko------
-------Bellamy-Crouch-Kuyt-------

[Ritchi3]

We lost all the important matches last season with the Alonso/Momo CM.

No we didn't. We won the most important one with them in it.

[mersey86]

For me the main point is that we have played well since Stevie moved back to his natural CM position. Why change a winning formula?

This should be viewed in its proper context. In our current run of good form we have played:
Manchester City at home (and we were awful)
Portsmouth at home (ditto)
Wigan away - (Bellamy made a difference, as did the run of the ball)
Fulham away - took us a long time to break them down
Charlton away - did not manage to secure the game until very late.

We are creating more chances, but (with Wigan as an exception) it would be hard to pick an easier set of fixtures - the home game against Watford completes a period when an upturn in form was more or less guaranteed.
Lets see how we do at Blackburn and Tottenham before we get too excited.

On the Momo question I agree with the general trend that Rafa does have a difficult choice and that the original poster was unjustly negative regarding Mr Sissoko. The jury is out for me.

[The_weatherman]

What a brilliant problem to have though!?! Shall I play Xabi Alonso or Momo Sissoko with Gerrard this week? Or shall I put them all in the team?

[Fan65]

Rotation Rotation Rotation...that's the answer

Looks like there's going to be two games a week for the rest of the season so
Rafa will need plenty of players to keep it going.

[desertscouser]

Momo coming back is going to be a big test for Rafa.

If we continue in the sort of form we're in, winning home and away with Gerrard playing in the middle then I would be very disappointed if Rafa switched things round to accomodate Momo.

[CAD]

No we didn't. We won the most important one with them in it.

That's the game where we were down 2-0 after 28 mins. It's the game where Gerrard safed us from what was effectively a CM position.

I would argue we won that inspite of the Momo/Alonso constellation!