Amido Balde

Will Balde start today?

Think it would be tempting to rest Sammy and give Balde a start, id imagine Ross county are gonna defend deep, get Forrest or the right and Derk on the left and get few good crosses in he can attack and hopefully get off the mark for us early.

 

No. bench.

 

Reckon we'll go with the euro line up

 

Strongest team possible

 

Would actually rather give Balde some game time then Stokes tbh.

 

I like your thinking here although I do believe the guys who'll perform in Sweden next week need more game time in stead of a rest. County will park the bus however.

 

is sammy not a doubt anywey after coming off injured midweek ?

 

We've played 3 serious games, a rest would do players with no injury any good it would only hinder them

 

Lenny will make some changes today I think with the likes of Ledley, Mulgrew, Matthews and possibly Boerrigter gettings starts, wouldn't be a shock to see Balde getting a start too with maybe Sammy and /or Commons being saved for Wednesday.

 

Threads merged

 

Hope he starts tonight.

 

Drop Stokes start Amido.

 

I know this is a bit of a simplistic way to look at it, but we shouldn't be spending £2m on a player if he isn't going to get a game against Ross County, imo.

County will expecting us to play an open game based on passing it along the deck. I say let's surprise them; play them at their own game and use Balde up top as a target-man, knocking down long balls and causing their centre-backs grief.

 

We usually do play a lot of long balls.

It really is a myth that we pass it around a lot. We did in Lennon's first season, now we usually thump it up the pitch.

Passing it about in oppositions half is one of our biggest struggles, in my opinion.

 

Matthews, ledley, Mulgrew, Balde, Boerigter need to all start in my eyes so they can be match fit for Elfsborg. Rest Sammy first and foremost while giving Lustig and Wilson rest since they have small knocks. Maybe start one of Watt/Mcgeouch/Rogic too

 

I never said we did pass it about - I'm saying Ross County will be expecting us to, because we're the better team, we're at home, and we generally like to attack a lot.

I know we tend to play a fair few long balls, but I'm talking more about how and when we use them. We tend to ping long balls from the full-back position while the wingers tend to cut inside. For this type of match (against an opposition who sit in and keep it narrow), I'd like to see a change to how the wingers play: we often have Commons and Forrest cutting inside; I'd like to see Forrest and Boerrigter stick to the flanks til they're deep into the final third, stretch their defence a bit wider, and get the long balls in to Balde.

In saying all that, I actually generally prefer us to pass it around, and it frustrates me that we don't keep the ball often enough and that we often seem hasty in attack (as I've said more than a few times on TC). However, for this type of game, we need to be looking to catch them off-guard by playing the long ball, but in a way where we maintain a bit of width to stretch their full-backs.

 

Give this guy a start before he gets frustrated ,bench stokes

 

Probably start on bench I reckon.

 

When they park the bus it'll be good practice for the bus were facing on wednesday. 7-1