so no Bertrand and no Targett
does that mean McQueen or Stephens gets a chance or do we risk Yoshi at left back?
BTW is Jack Stephens related to Schlong??
Cheers BTripz. Not good at all. Looks like Maya at LB then. Not sure Claude would start with one of the youngsters. Has Martina ever played LB for us?
Cheers BTripz. Not good at all. Looks like Maya at LB then. Not sure Claude would start with one of the youngsters. Has Martina ever played LB for us?
I don’t see why Puel wouldn’t start with one of the youngsters. He’s shown he’s not afraid to make bold decisions and has said from the start he’d give them a go if the opportunity arose.
From what I’ve heard Sam McQueen has been playing well for the under 23’s and Jack Stephens played the full 90 in England under 21’s 5-0 win the other night. Both must have a bit about them.
Stephens is more a centre half or sometimes defensive midfielder tho’ so I wouldn’t of thought he’d play him out of position.
I don’t remember Martina playing LB but was bought originally for his versatility to play anywhere across the defence so he’s a possibility … depends on Seesaws fitness I suppose.
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My guess would be something like this against Burnley.
Forster
Martina Yoshi VVW McQueen
Romeu
Clasie JWP
Tadic (Boufal)
Redmond Austin
Fonte, Davis, Targett and Hoijberjg rested for Milan. Boufal switched with Tadic after an hour or vice versa.
Good strong team
True about Puel and i would be happy to see Mc Queen play, just think he’ll go for the safest option, as i consider this an important game. 3 points will set us up nicely in the PL and come with the added feel good factor going into the Inter game.
I won’t mention the added bonus of going for our clean sheet record as that got me down voted before for tempting fate.
Let’s see what surprises Cluade gives us this weekend.
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I’d take that. Looks good and a decent bench* if changes are needed. I like your confidence in Yoshi and McQueen both in the back line(will Cluade be as brave?).
*It wasn’t that long ago that i was looking at who needed replacing so we had a decent first 11. Now i see a squad that that are all capable of coming on and changing a game.
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Surely the safe option would be to put a round peg in a round hole and McQueen is third choice LB as far as I know.
You right about Puel tho … he does think outside the box, so who knows
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I think we have to go as close to full strength as possible in this one. They won’t be a pushover by any means.
With the injuries we have we can’t afford to rest anybody else out of choice.
Hopefully we are in a position that we can give Boufal and Jay some minutes so that they can have more game time in Milan, thus allowing some rotation and keeping things fresh.
This is the more realistic solution, but i wouldn’t put money on it with Puel and i love a risky bet. Thing is, i like what he’s doing. I smiled when Hesketh got the nod(still do despite how it worked out) so i hope McQueen gets the nod as it will show Puel has seen something(or had a belief reinforced) during the international break. I do have a slight reservation about Maya in the back line at the same time, but he is not such a liability in the middle and strange as it sounds, i have a feeling Puel prefers him to José.
Burnley is a bit special for me for two reasons.
First, a bit of me is from there. My great grandmother was born there in 1909 in pretty dire circumstances, judging from the accommodation her folks appeared to be living in. Kept her Northern accent all her life, but her mum died young. Capable of being quite a harsh old girl too. Never accepted my grandad.
Second, and perhaps fittingly, it was Juvenile Unit #1’s first ever Saints fixture, up at Turf Moor. We drove down from Liverpool, listening to the Fratellis on the way. It couldn’t have been more Soccer AM. The ground was around 2/3rds full, with the stand over to our right particularly sparsely populated. When Burnley scored, a chubby bloke starts giving it the double-arm swinging two fingered salute.
We equalise, and with no prompting whatsoever, Juvy #1 chucks it right back at him, a girl of eleven years old. She’s done many things to make me proud, that was one of them. She fell in love with the banter that day, and if anything, she’s a glass cannon version of me. Knows even less about football (if you can believe that whopper, eh Baz), but capable of shouting a lot more.
The magic of youth, eh?.
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My Father was born in Burnley, though moved to South Wales as a 10 year old.
Is Yann Valery a left back or a right back?
Right back. Right footed as well.
FM Saints Researcher @ MatthewLeGod 12h12 hours ago
Staplewood source quote… “Players have been taken aback by Boufal in training. Basically they can’t get anywhere near him!” # saintsfc
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Looks like they might be able to get down our flanks though. No first choice full backs.
time for 3 5 2?
Originally posted by @newyorksaint
time for 3 5 2?
It’s an option but Martina and Targett are fit, so I expect we’ll see them start
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I think this will be a tougher game than most make out. They can be pretty hard to breakdown at times, (mainly at home though) and you can bet they will stick 10 men behind the ball.
Ok it is a game we should win, but you can bet your life they will be the first team to score against us at home since Sunderland the great, because they have not scored away in their two away games, losing them both 3-0 and we have not conceded for 6 games.
I’m pitching for a 2-1. A win is a win, but I feel we may need to be patient to break them down, with a late winner to boot.
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I think a lot of it is going to depend on how well the replacements acquit themselves. On paper this looks like a Saints win all day long. We’ve not conceded in six games and they haven’t scored for a while.