The anti-Martinelli brigade seem very quiet

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

Then we'd have started with Norgy the Dane and MnM. And if one got injured 5 mins in, we'd have to play with a defender or a no.10 as one of our pivots.

Though tbf, MLS could do a very good job there, and if we had to play Eze and Ethan ahead of one of those, we could. But we don't want Dec getting booked next CL match.

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My point was more that Rice will get suspended and miss the Munich match, whereas I'd fully expect us to beat Prague without Zubi and Rice

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Originally Posted by PSRB

My point was more that Rice will get suspended and miss the Munich match, whereas I'd fully expect us to beat Prague without Zubi and Rice

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Oh, I got the point. Do you remember when mad Jens deliberately got booked so he was suspended for a Milk Cup tie?

I was just hypothesising that imagine MA told Dec to take a yellow in injury time. Next matchday, we start with Norgy and MnM, say, and one of those gets injured in the first 5 mins and we have no-one to bring on. The meeja then slaughter MA.

But in an ideal world, we can be 3-0 by HT and take Dec off.

Or actually, start without Dec {as if he was suspended anyway.} Then he can't get booked. But if things are going badly, we can still bring him on. Like Port Vale in the LC.

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

Oh, I got the point. Do you remember when mad Jens deliberately got booked so he was suspended for a Milk Cup tie?

I was just hypothesising that imagine MA told Dec to take a yellow in injury time. Next matchday, we start with Norgy and MnM, say, and one of those gets injured in the first 5 mins and we have no-one to bring on. The meeja then slaughter MA.

But in an ideal world, we can be 3-0 by HT and take Dec off.

Or actually, start without Dec {as if he was suspended anyway.} Then he can't get booked. But if things are going badly, we can still bring him on. Like Port Vale in the LC.

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Fair points

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Originally Posted by PSRB

Fair points

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I don't think we have much to worry about. Win the next game and we are 12 points from 12, with two easy games to come. That is a top 8 finish pretty much nailed on.

Moving through to Christmas, he is going to have to trust Merino and give Rice the odd break here and there. Same with the other key players. They cant be expected to play 90 minutes twice a week.

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Originally Posted by Peter

I don't think we have much to worry about. Win the next game and we are 12 points from 12, with two easy games to come. That is a top 8 finish pretty much nailed on.

Moving through to Christmas, he is going to have to trust Merino and give Rice the odd break here and there. Same with the other key players. They cant be expected to play 90 minutes twice a week.

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:-\ Kai Havertz might be back in the next few weeks. Gabriel Jesus too.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

:-\ Kai Havertz might be back in the next few weeks. Gabriel Jesus too.

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Havertz is a key player for us. We need him fully fit.

I still think the captain is the single most important thing to get right. When he is flying, we are. If we get him back to where he was two seasons ago, we will be a massive problem for everyone this season. The two major trophies are on the table.

I'm starting to get a bit concerned about City.

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Originally Posted by Peter

I don't think we have much to worry about. Win the next game and we are 12 points from 12, with two easy games to come. That is a top 8 finish pretty much nailed on.

Moving through to Christmas, he is going to have to trust Merino and give Rice the odd break here and there. Same with the other key players. They cant be expected to play 90 minutes twice a week.

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Christmas may be coming but can we please not count turkeys or geese until they've hatched?

He'll have no problem trusting MnM. MA likes him. It was just the injuries last season that meant he never got to have a serious run of games with a Dec-MnM-Odin MF. It will be nice to see MnM with a ten and CF ahead of him and one of Dec/Zubi behind him or alternating with him. He's a very good MFer, is tall, wins duels etc but we'd then also have him arriving late into the box to score like Freddie did.

But as opposed to him being the CF/false 9, he'd still have a 10 to play him in {like Bergy with Freddie} and Vik to occupy two defenders so there aren't as many to track his run.

I reckon it'll be Norgy and MnM in the LC vs BHA.

It's Ethan he needs to trust more. When he came on, he had one great goalline clearance and a decent shot on target. He has oodles of talent, is only 18, scored loads in the 2nd half of last season but just needs to play more to learn the ropes of pressing etc at this level.

We normally play with one 10, but with Vik getting better and better for us with each passing game, we could have Odin, Eze, Kai and Ethan all going for one or two no.10 positions.

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Originally Posted by WES

he was outstanding, I thought.

When we play teams that actually want to play football, his name should be on the team sheet, every time.

And I wonder if, as we get used to Gyokeres, Martinelli might need to get used to him more than anyone.

I actually think it is Gyokeres changing us, rather than us getting used to him, if you see what I mean.

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He's been very good lately.