Home to the barcodes ....... Saturday 2nd November, 15:00

Expat_Hammer

Another home game and this against Newcastle.

Brother_Sledge

This will be my first visit to the LS this season. Hoping for a performance worthy of the effort/expense. :pray:

Yeoldhammer

Anything other than a win, is a failure in my book, considering our fixtures coming up soon.

ASLEFshrugged

I'd keep Snoddy in, swap Fredericks for Zab and maybe Oggy for Balbuena.

Newcastle have lost away at Norwich (3-1), Liverpool (3-1), Leicester (5-0), Chelsea (1-0) and won at Spurs (0-1). Apart from Norwich those aren't easy away games so even though they're currently 17th they might be a bit harder than some might expect.

thornburyiron

They’ve not scored more than once in any game this season so presume we will need at least 3 on Saturday.

Lukerz

Roberto
Fredericks - Diop - Balbuena - Masuaku
Rice - Noble
Yarmolenko - Snodgrass - Anderson
Haller

Martin, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Sanchez, Fornals, Lanzini, Ajeti

Cottee

Roberto
Fredericks-Balbuena-diop-Cresswell
Noble-Rice-Snodgrass
Yarmolenko-Anderson
Haller

Subs
Johnson, wilshere, Holland,

baracks_a_hammer

I have to say, if someone said to me back at the time that our c/m squad options would end up being Sanchez and an either injured or out of form Wilshere, I’d have preferred it if we had stuck with Pedro and Cheikh.

Similarly I think we’d have been better off sticking with Chica and Lucas Perez rather than buy Ajeti - at least they did chip in with some goals, even if it were off the bench

MrsGrey

Cottee said:

Subs
Johnson, wilshere, Holland,

Blimey, that's confidence!

Hammerwombat

We will smash them.

chicagohammer

My wife’s family are staunch Mackems, so................ COYI

Pearces_Left_Foot

We need to move the ball upfield quicker too much backwards and sideways recently making easy for teams to defend against us. I think Anderson looked better and have a feeling he is due a big game. Keep Snods in he was making loads of runs and supporting Haller abit aswell as drawing defenders away. A few more early balls /crossed to Haller he makes so many good runs without the ball going anywhere near him . 3-1 Win

BubblesNeverDies

PLF, it's the same in rugby, what is it that all the pundits/coaches etc. call for - quick ball.
Leicester played 4-1-4-1 against Southampton, as we did against t'Blunts, but they moved the ball so much more quickly forwards.

ASLEFshrugged

Pellegrini asked "What does Robert Snodgrass offer?

"For different reasons, Robert wasn't playing. We had new players in his position but he is a good player that works well. He's renewed his contract and, when he has his opportunities, he plays like he did in the last game. I'm very happy for him."

I think that translates as Snoddy in the starting line up on Saturday.

thornburyiron

Both Nicholas and Lawro have us down to win 2-1

ASLEFshrugged

thornburyiron said:

Both Nicholas and Lawro have us down to win 2-1

So 0-0 draw

baracks_a_hammer

ASLEFshrugged said:

thornburyiron said:

Both Nicholas and Lawro have us down to win 2-1

So 0-0 draw

I didn’t know Fab was back from injury so quickly?

Adam

You could easily argue that the Oxford loss really affected us as a squad. 2 draws and 2 losses since then. Hopefully we can win this and get some confidence back, before the tough games we have coming up.

Bazshuayi

Its one of those rare Saturdays when AC is apparently fit to face us! I wonder what could possibly happen...:wahoo:

Kuchinghammer

I haven't felt as tense about a match all season. This is a real turning point, a draw or loss could pop the bubble good and proper. :sofa: already

Lukerz

I think questions will begin to be asked of Pelle if we don’t win this.

Bournemouth
Palace
Everton
Sheffield United
Newcastle

Potentially taking 2/3 points from those five is not good enough.

MrsGrey

Lukerz said:

I think questions will begin to be asked of Pelle if we don’t win this.

Where have you been?

Lukerz

Well from my point of view, anyway.

I have always given him the benefit but I want us to look like we are building towards something.

As soon as it looks like we are going nowhere, it becomes a problem. As people have said, he is not here to see us fight for 10th (you’d hope), so what are we looking to achieve?

Palace/Sheffield Utd - could have easily been 6 points on another day.

Everton - shocking.

A win tomorrow can still us into the top 6. Which after 11 games I am sure everybody would have taken in August. But we need to start doing it & some of our players need to step up now (Anderson, Lanzini, Fornals, Haller). If we fluff tomorrow’s game I would start to question why we are underperforming after that very good start.

jay_in_cpt

If we don't win tomorrow with some games coming up, it'll be looking at the bottom 3 rather than the top 6, Pelle it's over to you to deliver, motivate the team & choose the tactics to give us the win, hopefully some players who have been below par on their ability can come to the party, but Pelle needs to inspire them to do so, can he though?..... :pray:

Lukerz

Anderson has 1 goal in 2019? Is that right?

Lanzini has 0 goals this season.

Haller has only scored twice since August.

We need these ‘bigger’ players to step up & win us games.

Cuz1

In fairness to haller we’ve not created much for him imo that’s where our problem lies

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Lukerz :ok:

Lanzini has been the biggest disappointment so far this season.

Anderson has been poor but is at least constantly involved and constantly dangerous, though he must start adding goals back to his game.

But Lanzini has really contributed almost nothing so far this season. I know he missed a lot of football last season, but that as an excuse holds less water every passing game. He needs to step up.

ASLEFshrugged

From Bruce's press conference Matt Ritchie, Fabian Schar, and Florian Lejeune are all injured, Sean Longstaff is banned (first of three for red card v Wolves).

They've mostly played 5-4-1, possibly Ciaran Clark replacing Schar and Jonjo Shelvey for Longstaff.

General opinion seems to be that Bruce will "park the bus".

BubblesNeverDies

:biggrin: Aslef, a bit like this

thornburyiron

Surely they can bring their own buses.

jay_in_cpt

I wish haller all the best, he looks like he has the ability , but IMO he needs to dig in a bit, get involved, I'm sure lot's wont agree but that is what I see when he has played in our last few games....Get stuck in Haller, if u have to drop back, do so...Just do it...!