Week 17 Tactics

Pickford
Meunier Veltman Keane Grimaldo
Keita Castro Gueye
Alli Mertens
Wilson

Bench
Yedlin
Fosu mensah
Mcqueen
Arter
Lookman
Gayle
Defoe

Tactics
Our tactics this week is to defend a and hit them on the counter attack. Our defense should stick deep, not allowing Rashford or the wingers to get in behind. When we get on the ball we should look to counter quickly, especially if there's only one man in defensive midfield as we look to overload them. Alli and Mertens should play in free roles behind the striker, being difficult to pick up while Calum Wilson gets the nod upfront. He has pace to look to drift wide and in behind as we feel we can take advantage of their lack of pace defensively.

SUBS
If winning - Defoe for Wilson fresh legs in attack
If losing - Lookman and Defoe for Gueye and Wilson. move to a 4-2-3-1

-------------------------------------------Randolph------------------------------
De Marcos---------------Tah-------------------Pepe-----------------Van Aanholt
------------------------------Alonso---------------Kimmich-------------------------
Pulisic--------------------------------Coutinho-----------------------------Redmond
------------------------------------------Rashford---------------------------------------------------

Subs - Evra, Passlack

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

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

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

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

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

Strikers
Rashford to play off shoulders of defenders and try and beat offside trap. Be clinical when through.

Injuries: Neves, Barzagli, Belotti, Hogan


Subs: Robinson, Navarro, Holgate, Telles, Davies,  Oyarzabal, Uth

Tactics :
Defence
Defend from the front.
Sule to stick close to Dybala, Sanchez to play spare watching runs from deep and covering if Dybala gets free
Lahm on left to pick up O.Dembele. If O.Dembele swaps wings, Lahm and Elvedi swap
M.Dembele and Bakayoko to protect back four

Attack
Bernardeschi pushed wider as targeting the wide area and attacking with pace.
M.Dembele playing deep, dictating play, getting ball to the wingers.
Bakayoko going box to box
Martins/Bernardeschi run at defence, going inside and out.
Elvedi can get forward in support and overlap.
Iheanacho and Gray to use pace and stretch defence

Subs: on 70 minutes, Telles for Elvedi – on at LB, Lahm at RB; Oyarzabal for Gray – on at LW, Bernardeschi to SS

-------------------------Boruc
Klostermann -- Murillo -- Christensen -- Balenziaga
--------------------------Parades
----------------Toure ------------Iborra
-----------------------Aspas
----------------Dybala ------Dembele

Bench - Smith,Francis,Valbuena,Grifo,King,Stanislas ,Afobe

Back 4 to drop a little deeper with Gray or Iheanacho up top.
Christensen to pick the main forward up
Murillo to cover with pace
Full backs show wingers down the line, Stay back and defend today
Parades sit infront of the defense cut the supply into forward out, Drop into a back 5 when under pressure
Iborra & Yaya go box to box and look to bully their midfield and try to stop Dembele dictating the play, Both DM when defending
Yaya to go rampaging forwards, Iborra drop back when that happens
Aspas to sit behind the forwards and drift about looking to knock balls in behind if they have a back 5 knock into channels
Dybala to link things and get beyond the defense running in behind slowest defender
Ousmane just drift wider into the channels to get yourself in behind

Sub - Valbuena for Dembele - Aspas up top

This is a tough one. I think the physicality and aggression of the Sunderland midfield will win them plenty of ball, and I'd fancy them to knock Coutinho off his stride. Rashford struggles a bit as a lone striker for me, given he's not had that role at all this season. With Coutinho and Rashford having their impact reduced, its up to the wingers to provide the attacking threat for WBA.

I like the Alli/Mertens free role, think it works for both of them and they'll provide a good threat. Wilson is going to struggle up against Tah, and I'd like to have seen more instruction for the full backs to push on, especially with the protection from the 3 midfielders.
I would have given this as a 0-0 under old rules, but I have to pick a winner, and think Alli will be the difference maker.

Battle of the basement and two teams that have undergone a real transformation in the past few weeks, one of which that is setting them both up to improve on this season’s poor standing. Sunderland still have a bit of work to do and look to be addressing it with bringing in Vardy & Cahill though I’d have put Mertens in the striker role myself this week, not really a fan of the set up this week and Wilson just isn’t the level now required for the league, can’t see him posing much of a threat to Pepe & Tah. Much prefer the natural width of the WBA team and just the set up of the team though I think instructions wise aren’t particularly strong.

Tough one this, both good teams but can honestly see Coutinho being a problem for Veltman and Keane. I think Nadz has done well to rebuild his team and can see him having success in this game. Nadz wins this but only just. I feel Nadz needs to work on RB next imo.

Both sides try to second guess each other and get it totally wrong. As a result I can see this being a goal fest in which both teams attacks are stronger than the defences. Yaya has shown in recent weeks that when motivated he can still be one of the best B2Bs about v Tottenham and with the extra man in midfield I can see him causing Burnley problems, for me Burnley need a creative force in the middle of the pitch and that’s their downfall this week, also think the strike options of Bournemouth will score more than their counterparts.

I can see what Nando is trying to do here but i can see the narrow formation being a problem. I'm not saying it can't work but i can see Lahm and Bernadeschi being too much for Klostermann down that left hand side. , i feel like the full backs would need some extra support up against the wide players of Burnley.

I'm really struggling to split these two.

Burnley do well with their wings, I think the Bournemouth FBs can be got at, and they'll lack a bit of protection from the midfield with Toure specifically being unlikely to help much on his side. Bournemouth strong centrally, their strikers will occupy the CBs and the midfield battle will be keenly contested up against a very good Burnley pair.

Dybala and Dembele are the two best attacking players on show for me, but Dembele isn't suited to that position, maybe when off a target man but Dybala also wants to get in behind. Tactics make it tricky to predict, I'm not expecting Lahm to follow Dembele if he has no natural opponent, and think he can help the midfield battle

Very conflicted, could go either way but is probably a draw. Under these rules, I'll go for a Burnley win with the wings creating a chance for the poacher Iheanacho