Team for weekend?

OOps typo
should of course be Shinji not Shilji
He has to start

UTF

TB, I agree on Albrighton. He had a poor game (by his standards) on Tuesday, but for me he would be one of the first names on the team sheet every week. His work rate is phenomenal and I think we would regret it if he was left out of the team on Saturday. UTF.

Schmeichel
Fuchs, Morgan, Maguire, Simpson
Albrighton, James, Ndidi, Mahrez
Okazaki
Vardy

This is the team for me if they are all fit to play. If Vardy isn’t fit then I might be inclined to go with Ian. It would be interesting to see what he could do with Okazaki’s support.

There is some debate about midfield. I wasn’t at the game to see Iborra play so I don’t know how fit and able he would be to replace James or Ndidi. So if James isn’t fit then I don’t know where I’d sit on the King v Iborra argument. There will inevitably be some calls for 3 across centre midfield, but I’m not a fan. It’s the weakest area of our squad so I’m not a big advocate for flooding it with even more average players.

At some point I wouldn’t mind seeing the return of a back 3 with wing backs. Maguire seems the ideal man to step out of defence with the ball and Fuchs and Albrighton are the best crossers in the squad. This would have to be worked on in training, however, and the players would have to get comfortable. If it’s tried without proper preparation (like last season) the players will not know what space they’re supposed to be covering and we will look disjointed and awful and the option will disappear for another year.

Still yearning for Iborra and Silva to give us more options.

Slimani to start no James and Vardy won't be fit

In the good old days you did not drop a player who scored. But it was only liverpool in the Caramac cup

I have to be honest, if Slimani had, had even a decent game - goal aside, or it had been a poacher style goal - as a reflection of the work he was doing in the box (counter balancing what little else he did jn general), I think there would be an argument to start him.

But he's been poor for so much of the time he's been on the pitch this season, it's really difficult to use the simplified equation of 'he's scored, so he stays in' - ironically, the type of goal he scored, probably goes against him because of how unique it was....

...there is also the consistency to this argument of 'keeping a place in the team' as it would mean it only fair for Hamer and Amartey to retain their place due to contributions to a clean sheet.

However, as the debate is affected by Vardy's possible injury, Slimani, as a result of this, probably shades it ahead of 'Nacho.

Nev is clearly banging the drum for Slimani and that's fine. I'm actually of the view that Slimai hasn't deserved a lot of the criticism that he gets. He has an ungainly playing style and doesn't have a great first touch, but he has consistently scored goals for us when he's played. Ok, he's not worth the money we paid for him, but that's not his fault.

For me it's all about balance of the side. If Vardy is fit then he starts and Okazaki has demonstrated that he's the best player to support Vardy and provide the link between attack and midfield.

If Vardy isn't fit then there is a strong case for starting Slim. My inclination to have a look at Ian with Okazaki was more from a desire to see what he might offer as an alternative to Vardy rather than as an alternative to the support striker and not because of any dislike of Slimani.

Well balanced Joby good point but my view its a home game and we need a win so would have a look at someone who might do a job or start a player who confidence is high now he has scored.

comment by Nevsaysagoal2city (U5194)
posted 1 minute ago
Well balanced Joby good point but my view its a home game and we need a win so would have a look at someone who might do a job or start a player who confidence is high now he has scored.


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..... and I wouldn't be surprised or critical of CS if he went for that option. There is some logic in it especially as Liverpool struggle with defending set pieces.

Slimani wont start, he's being used in the cups and as a squad option, I'd say Vardy, Ichy and Okazaki are currently ahead of him in the packing order, although Slim has played relatively well in the cup.