ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Massive few games ahead!

I know I'm stating the obvious here, but these next few games are huge. Obviously from a league perspective, wins against City and Wigan will cement 5th place (with the possibilty of going 4th) and keep us in the mix for a Champions League place.

I believe if we are to go through in the Cup everything needs to be right for us. If we go into the Chelsea game on the back of a few poor results, it will be an uphill battle before the game even starts as confidence will not be what it could be.

Imagine going into the game in 5th/4th place on the back of two solid wins. The lads will be buzzing and the recent poor results would be a distant memory. Goodison will be jumping and fingers crossed it could turn into one of those special nights.

So our League Cup assault starts tomorrow with a home win against City!! COYB!!
Paul Lenehan, Armagh Posted 11/01/2008 at 10:42:47

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Gary Tan
1 Posted 11/01/2008 at 11:05:20

I know that we have more strikers available than midfielders and with the form that they are in, I can understand why DM is playing 2 upfront. But the last few results and performance have shown that 4-5-1 is our best formation. So for the Man City game, lets hope that we revert to that, with Cars & Neville/Fernandes in the centre and Arteta and McFadden on the wings. Cahill behind Johnson will give us a better goal threat upfront...well, thats my FM take on it anyway

Matt Philip
2 Posted 11/01/2008 at 11:27:42

Lyndon, In your match preview for tomorrow's game against Man City you say that Moyes is likely to go with the same midefield as the Chelsea semi final, i.e. Carsley, Neville, Cahill, McFadden.

Do you have some inside information on Arteta as I thought he'd be back from suspension for the game tomorrow?

If Arteta is playing, it means there's a number of options on formation and selection. Personally, I'd like to see Neville drop back to right back with Arteta, Carsley, Cahill, McFadden across the middle. He may chose 4-5-1 though, especially with Elano likely to be playing.

Dan Pedersen
3 Posted 11/01/2008 at 12:36:09

Vaughan needs to start in my opinion.

Howard

Neville, Jagielka, Lescott, Baines

Arteta Carsley, Cahill, McFadden

Vaughan, Andy Johnson

Hopefully Fernandes can make some inpact at some stage but lets be realistic he is not going to start the game. For all we know the guy has not even signed yet and we are playing in 24 hours!

It will be a really difficult game though but lets hope we can snatch a win.

Steve Hopkins
4 Posted 11/01/2008 at 09:14:30

Lyndon you didn't mention Arteta in your match preview, isn't he supposed to be back for the City game.

Charlie Percival
5 Posted 11/01/2008 at 12:45:41

Ye Lyndon you didn?t mention Arteta in your match preview, isn?t he supposed to be back for the City game.

Michael Kenrick
6 Posted 11/01/2008 at 12:49:16

I think you’re right: Mikky is back!
I had a shot at fixing Lyndon’s preview... no doubt he’ll do a better job when he gets the message...

Graham Holliday
7 Posted 11/01/2008 at 13:07:27

Lyndon - you seem to have made an error in your match preview - I think Arteta is back for this one... ;D

Jonathan Tasker
8 Posted 11/01/2008 at 13:27:09

Cahill is so much more effective in 4-5-1; cannot see Fernandes deal being tied up before tomorrow which means 4-4-2 so ineffective Cahill, the dreadful Neville in midfield, ditto Hibbert at right back! and just to add to the good news, Anelka has signed for Chelsea and is available to play against us in the league cup; just great!

Allan Hobbs
9 Posted 11/01/2008 at 13:57:33

Arteta is indeed back for tomorrows game - we really need to win this. Manny’s having his medical today so could figure, though its unlikely appreantly, given that he wont have trained with the squad today. Shame really, though my suspicion is he’ll be on the bench.

Paul Lenehan
10 Posted 11/01/2008 at 14:11:23

The good thing is Manny knows the set up and knows the players. So even if he doesn’t train with the lads today I would hope he will feature from the bench.

Liam Reilly
11 Posted 11/01/2008 at 12:51:13

See Chelski have got Anelka for 15 million. Anyone know if he's cup-tied in the Carling Cup? Although he couldn't score against us in the Premier League, he'll have better service in his new squad.

Ben Jackson
12 Posted 11/01/2008 at 15:05:34

Is Fernandes available for the Uefa cup or will he be cup tied? Sorry if this has already been answered but I wasn’t sure!

Viv Sharma
13 Posted 11/01/2008 at 18:44:08

A few losses and a couple of underpar performances from a weakened squad and some fans have lost that lovin feeling we all had until Peanuts twitchy tackle on Giggs...

As far as I can make out, we are about to get Fernandes back with the option to buy. Picture it! Howard, Baines, Lescott, Yobo, Jags, Cars, Cahil, Fernandes, Arteta, Peinaar, Yak.... Osman to slot in there, Vaughn/Anichebe/Johnson at the ready, Nev as the all-rounder.

Lets just keep our heads for these difficult few weeks while we have been (are still) missing some key figures. To me thats an incredible team capable of anything! COYB!!!

Martin Cutler
14 Posted 12/01/2008 at 05:24:53

I was idly passing the time away before the next game (v Man City) and in looking at the Premier League I realised (and there's many, many ways you can cut this up and examine it to death I know) but had we beat Man Utd home and away we'd be on the same number of points as them (42)....same number of wins, ties and losses.

My point being that there really isn't that much of a difference (of course they did beat us twice and their squad is way better) but if we can get those extra 2 or 3 players we keep talking about (Fernandes being one of them now) and if we could just pull a couple of results from the infamous Top 4 we could easily slip into the top four ourselves!

Before you blow this away as dreaming......all I'm saying is we are very close to competing right up there at the very top..........as I said in an earlier post...confidence is a key factor...if we get the right players in, get a good run........I truly think we'd be a force to reckon with!

Saying that we'll probably get stuffed by Man City now (oh, no, we won't!) .............but for sure the result against City is vitally important (more so than the Oldham game)....plus their away form isn't brilliant so we really do have to win this one!

COYB!