Week 9 Tactics

-------------------------------------Randolph------------------------------
De Marcos---------------Tah-------------------Sule-----------------Evra
-------------------------------Weigl--------------------Pepe-------------------------
Vazquez----------------------------Asensio--------------------------Coman
------------------------------------------Aduriz-----------------------------------------------------

Subs - Aina, Passlack

GAMEPLAN
Play possession football and try and break Burnley down. We have a nice mixture of youth and experience in the starting 11..

DEFENCE
Reliable keeper in goal. Sule to mark their main striker and Tah to do the covering. Fullbacks to make overlapping runs and get crosses into the box.

DefenceMidfield
Weigl and Pepe main role defend and cut passing lanes and close down attackers. Weigl will look to use playmaking ability to create chances.

Wingers
Vazquez and Coman bring pace to team. Get to byline and whip in crosses for striker to finish.

AttackMid
Asensio to play quick passes with teammates and make runs into box.

Strikers
Aduriz is classic old school striker. Very good at heading and real goal poacher. Want him use his attacking prowess to get on end of crosses and power headers in.

Subs
70mins Aduriz off Passlack on

Burnley v  WBA

Buffon
Conti---Sanchez---Barzagli---Mendy
Defour----Bakayoko
Bernardeschi------------------Oyarzabal
Belotti----Gray

Subs: Robinson, Alvarez, Elvedi, Huddlestone, Forsberg, Iheanacho

Tactics:
Defence
High pressing game, winning possession high up the pitch.
Barzagli to man mark main striker, Sanchez to pick up second striker or sweep up behind if spare.
Full backs to pick up wingers, force them wide or to cross from deep.
Defour and Bakayoko protecting the back four, with Defour sitting deep.

Attack
Using high pressure game to win ball back and attack with pace & urgency
Bernardeschi and Oyarzabal out wide, but come narrow to allow full backs to overlap. Swap sides to                                                                                            create   confusion.
Bakayoko to get box to box and support front three, Defour to pull strings from deep.
Belotti and Gray working in tandem. Plenty of movement stretching the defence.

Subs:
Forsberg for Oyarzabal, Iheanacho for Gray on 65ins – for fresh legs

Injuries - Insigne/Klostemann/Denayer/King

-------------------Boruc
Smith -- Naldo -- Christensen -- Daniels
----------Parades -- Castro
Iwobi ---------------- ----- Valbuena
---------Modeste---- Zlatan

Bench - Federici,Francis,Arana,Ake,Maia,Ramirez,Afobe

Back 4 to sit deep to negate Rashford's pace
Naldo to get tight on him when comes close so can't get shots away
Christensen to cover him if manages to turn
Full backs to squeeze inside to create a tight back 4 across the box to make them cross into the box also go forward and overlap
Parades to sit infront of the back 4 break up the play or keep it ticking over
Castro to go box to box look to dictate play get out wide or into Zlatan quickly.
Iwobi look to get down the line and whip balls in
Valbuena to cut in off the line to create chances
Modeste look to run in behind the defense and use your power to bully people
Zlatan look to get on the ball in space and create before getting in box for crosses

Sandro for Modeste - Goes AM

----------------------Valdes

-------Gibson ----Van Dijk------Linedelof

Valencia---Locatelli---------Rabiot------Rose

------------Ribery---------Bentaleb------------

-------------------Rashford--------------------

Subs - Konstantopolous, Espinosa, Fosu Mensah, Clayton, Forshaw, Sims, Stuani

Looking to play a high pressing game with Rashford pressing from the front. AMs to push onto their midfield pair and force them wider.

Back our 3 CBs to handle Zlatan, we're less worried about attack from the wings, our wing backs can handle that.

Locatelli and Rabiot to be the secondary press if the ball gets past Ribery/Bentaleb, cut off the supply into Zlatan.

Valencia and Rose to provide the width to give Ribery/Bentaleb space to create, if they play a high line look for through balls to Rashford/overlap from Rose/Valencia

Rashford to run in behind all game long to push their CBs onto the back foot.

Locatelli to sit, Rabiot free to support attack

Subs
Losing at 70 - Stuani for Gibson, go 4-4-2 and attack
Winning at 70 - hold with what we have but swap tired players

Bournemouth V Middlesborough

Tough game to call but can see Bournemouth edging it. Both good sides but can see Nandos getting the edge with the midfield and power up front especially with Zlatan. I like Rashford but think he would be better suited playing off another striker.

Bournemouth Win

WBA V Burnley

Nadz is doing well to rebuild his team after CF gate but he still needs to improve a lot. I like what he has started to build however i can see Pepe struggling in a midfield where he will be protecting and expected to put decent tackles in. Can see the pressure from Afro being too much for WBA to handle.

Burnley Win

West Brom have made a mistake for me in saying play nice possession football. With Burnley playing high pressure it would have been better for them to play long balls up especially considering it would benefit Aduriz more. Pepe at CM raises a question but I can accept it just about. Next time play five at the back (which would work with your other players I think). Burnley have a strong side and I like Grey and Belotti upfront, along with a decent set of tactics to counter Burnley correctly. Not sure about Sanchez at CB though.

Burnley win


This is a difficult game to call because Bournemouth are very strong going forward even without Insigne but defensively need to reinvest. The full backs are the obvious targets. They have set up correctly by going deep and having the full backs narrow counters Ribery and Bentaleb, but Valencia and Rose will cause problems and Van Dijk at the back is quality for Middlesbrough. In the old days I would give a draw but as I'm forced to pick a winner I'll go Middlesbrough, just.

WBA v Burnley

WBA - Get Pepe out of that midfield role. For the love of god. Gone for possession football but Weigl/Asensio aside they're not actually that great players for possession so that worries me. With Pepe/Weigl remaining defensive and playing possession football I think it leaves a fair bit of space in midfield as well for opposition to exploit.

Burnley - Lot of pressure on Defour with Bakayoko going B2B in a 2 man midfield, that can be exploited more so if opposition midfield hadn't been as defensive. Actually prefer Iheanacho upfront over Gray. Think wings cause WBA real problems.

Burnley win

Bournemouth v Middlesbrough

Bournemouth - Going forward it's an immense force but still not wholly convinced by the defence or midfield and can see Rashford running Naldo ragged at times. Going forward though with a wide winger in Iwobi this stretches the 3 centrebacks when the WBs have gone forward to give space to the on fire Modeste.

Middlesbrough - Can see Boro dominating midfield with their square though find it hard to then penetrate. 2 of Premier League's best FBs this season but work cut out today playing as WBs, think they both play better with a winger ahead of them.

Tactically hard to prize them apart, by the slimmest of margins I'm edging it to Boro.