Cant wait. Surely with the emergency loan process Gray will be in the 16 but will he be on the bench or starting 11. And we are going to see Pardews colours re Iwelumo/Varney/Dickson/Mcleod. Admittedly its a tough away game against a physical side.
My guess is
Weaver
Moo2,Bougy,McCarthy,Youga
Sam,Holland,ZZ,Ambrose
Varney,Iwelumo
Subs
Randolph,Semedo,Thomas,Gray,Dickson
0
Comments
He had a big day yesterday, travelling and a late night with all the dealings, medical, etc.
Pretty exhausting.
So I'll probably be wrong then....... ;o)
Watch out Pards.
Interesting Thomas and Mcleod werent on the bench.
Pards favours Ambrose and it was interesting that he didnt have a wide player on the bench preferring it seems at the moment to move Varney there if 2 strikers have been brought on.
SuperMac......well he's had a bit of a chance - that's not to devalue his making openings, running at & panicking defenders but he's just not finishing. Seems that Dickson has edged above him in the pecking order - unless SuperMac's got a knock, of course.
Varney is running his plums off working the channels & popping up everywhere except right in front of goal.
His work rate is first class and some good intelligent movement also. Perhaps, if we can cover elsewhere, we can give him a bit more of a free role, especially while Reidy's out?
He always looks good in the hole just behind the main striker - and then able to run with the ball which he does quite effectively. Let's hope Gray & Varns can link up as a partnership.
sticking to 4-4-2,
Varney and Gray up front
with a central midfield of - Holland/Semedo and ZZ
a winger on the right - Sam/Thomas
and a more drifting inwards midfielder on the left - Ambrose now, Reidy when he gets back
a return to the Curbishley days of playing Stuart on the right to balance and not go all out 4-4-2 with two wingers not interested in tracking back
Early last season, Dowie's 4-4-2 was 2 wide players and 2 centre mids who were often over run. And Pards tended to favour the same way until now.
But Pards tactics now appear to be based on the 2 fast, energetic full backs in Moo2 & Jelly quickly overlapping - so maybe our current formation doesn't depend so much on touchline hugging wingers as it did before Xmas.
Which makes it harder for opponents to run through centre midfield, allowing us to play 2 up front without reverting to 4-5-1. With the overlapping fullbacks frequently providing the width.