who would you rest for the Chelsea game?

[Suffolk exile]

None - I don't like changing a winning team, can be very detrimental.

[Monsell1976]

Those who are tired should be rested, Pearson is big on the sports science, so he should know who is fatigued.

Vardy is supposed to be having injections, and schlupp couldn't make it yesterday, so those two defo.

The only problem I have is we are building a head of steam, and would mass changes be harmful?.

We have had a season of chopping and changing, a settled side is what we need.

Yesterday those who haven't played looked shocking, I.e konchesky and drinkwater, and weakened us.

I'm now of the opinion, Chelsea are getting results, but not looking great, I'd be tempted to have a go, and go for a draw, a point could be massive at the end of the season.

[Marie84]

Its not as if we have been winning with Ulloa in the team is it. FFS

Just saying in my opinion I don't rate him

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[Guest seanfox778]

Maybe Vardy if the painkilling injection thing is true. I'd start Kramaric for sure, he should be well up for this. Resting players sends a bad message that we've got no chance of winning, we should go for it, there are points to be won and you just never know in this game.

[Guest Col city fan]

I'd rest Cambiasso for this one.

The thought of him scampering after Hazard, Willian and Fabregas is a little scary with the Newcastle game looming.

[shailen]

I'm not sure why this is even a debate. We always play our strongest side regardless of where we are in the table. We have to go out to win every game of football, which comes about from playing our strongest team. If players are fatigued/unfit that is not our strongest team. We start every game at 0-0. The Chelsea game on paper looks tough, but the game is not played on paper. I would not be surprised if we beat Chelsea and lose to Newcastle, because this happens a lot in football. It is so unpredictable. I get there is a responsibility to keep our players fit and not burn them out. But is that our priority at the moment? We are fighting a relegation battle where we need to amass as many points as quickly as possible. We cannot afford to look past a single game. Maybe we scrap a point at Chelsea. That point could keep us up at the end of the season. 

[Dr The Singh]

Konchesky, Drinkwater, both should be rested for the rest if the season

[yorkie1999]

Were not going to beat chelsea, play Wood and Ulloa up front and just keep hoofing the ball up to them, save our quick players for the rest of the games.

[BoyJones]

IMO we must go all out for a win against Chelsea, four wins on the spin suggests the lads will be well up for it.

I would give Krameric a start for Ulloa, and Mayrez for Albrighton. Thought Albrighton was off the pace yesterday, seemed to have no real spark on several occasions, although he did come in for some rough treatment from Burnley who literally kicked him off the park a coule of times in the first half. To his credit he did put in the telling cross which led to the goal.

Would also hope Schlupp is available again.

Basically, I think we need our most skilful players on the pitch for this game.

[NewquayFox]

Just leave Konchesky out please, same team but not him as he is lazy and lacks concentration and is a liability, give Ben Chilwell a run, maybe Kramaric in for Ulloa......

[Zapp]

I'm not sure why this is even a debate. We always play our strongest side regardless of where we are in the table. We have to go out to win every game of football, which comes about from playing our strongest team. If players are fatigued/unfit that is not our strongest team. We start every game at 0-0. The Chelsea game on paper looks tough, but the game is not played on paper. I would not be surprised if we beat Chelsea and lose to Newcastle, because this happens a lot in football. It is so unpredictable. I get there is a responsibility to keep our players fit and not burn them out. But is that our priority at the moment? We are fighting a relegation battle where we need to amass as many points as quickly as possible. We cannot afford to look past a single game. Maybe we scrap a point at Chelsea. That point could keep us up at the end of the season. 

 

 

Very short sighted view

The point folk are making is that by playing our strongest IX vs chelsea, it makes our best players unfit for the more winnable newcastle. Making our best IX worse for saturday.

Therefore it gives us less chance to win either. 

 

 

It brings a new dimension to the Chelsea game tactics though. Our approach needs to be disciplined. If we want players at their best for BOTH games they cant spend wednesday night chasing the ball for 90 minutes.

 

 

    Do we play the guys who can counter attack, produce moments of brilliance to create chances but could be caught out and lose the ball easily. (Like Mahrez)

or Do we play the guys who can retain the ball to keep possession but rely on crosses and set pieces for our best chances to score (Like Ulloa)

 

 

 

My brain hurts 

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

Definitely a game for Mahrez. Would give Wes a rest as well. Leo look knackered yesterday. Esteban would probably struggle to play 2 games in 4 days.

[shailen]

Very short sighted view

The point folk are making is that by playing our strongest IX vs chelsea, it makes our best players unfit for the more winnable newcastle. Making our best IX worse for saturday.

Therefore it gives us less chance to win either. 

 

 

It brings a new dimension to the Chelsea game tactics though. Our approach needs to be disciplined. If we want players at their best for BOTH games they cant spend wednesday night chasing the ball for 90 minutes.

 

 

    Do we play the guys who can counter attack, produce moments of brilliance to create chances but could be caught out and lose the ball easily. (Like Mahrez)

or Do we play the guys who can retain the ball to keep possession but rely on crosses and set pieces for our best chances to score (Like Ulloa)

 

 

 

My brain hurts 

 

I think that's very naive. Like I've said I understand that we play a game 3 days after Chelsea. But we cannot afford to prioritise later games in our position, regardless of the opposition. Our focus has to be on the next game which is Chelsea. Regardless of what anyone thinks we have to go out there with the intention to win. Whether Nige thinks he needs to make changes to give us the best chance of winning, or stick with the same winning side. Changes for tactical reasons I will accept, but we cannot make changes just to prioritise games in the future. For all we know we lose heavily against Chelsea and then lose against Newcastle again. We could be back in the relegation zone and never recover. We are not in the position to write off any games. We are only one point clear and we play two/potentially three of our relegation rivals. Lose to one of them and they can overtake us. This is clearly a case of running before you walk. A lot of people think Newcastle will be an easy fixture. On paper it is an easier fixture, but it's a very naive strategy to literally roll over and play a second string side for Chelsea. Could lose our momentum, confidence and ultimately our chance of PL survival. 

 

For me if Vardy and Cambiasso are match fit, play them, and if they are tired after 60/65 minutes take them off. I don't think we can afford to rest them for any game till the end of the season regardless of who we are playing. 

[RedSoxUK]

Vardy, and Cambiasso.

 

Kramaric and Hammond (if fit enough)

[whitlock]

Newcastle is the important one, Wednesday is a free pass. Go for it, only thing to be mindful of is goal difference. Much rather have a fresh Cambi/Vardy for the Newcastle game than play them against Chelsea.

[Leicesterpool]

Kasper

Huth

Wasileswki

Morgan

Albrighton

Konchesky

James

King

Drinkwater

Kramaric

Ulloa

 

Bench-

Schwarzer, Upson, Schlupp, Mahrez, De Laet, Wood, Cambiasso. 

[Zapp]

I think that's very naive. Like I've said I understand that we play a game 3 days after Chelsea. But we cannot afford to prioritise later games in our position, regardless of the opposition. Our focus has to be on the next game which is Chelsea. Regardless of what anyone thinks we have to go out there with the intention to win. Whether Nige thinks he needs to make changes to give us the best chance of winning, or stick with the same winning side. Changes for tactical reasons I will accept, but we cannot make changes just to prioritise games in the future. For all we know we lose heavily against Chelsea and then lose against Newcastle again. We could be back in the relegation zone and never recover. We are not in the position to write off any games. We are only one point clear and we play two/potentially three of our relegation rivals. Lose to one of them and they can overtake us. This is clearly a case of running before you walk. A lot of people think Newcastle will be an easy fixture. On paper it is an easier fixture, but it's a very naive strategy to literally roll over and play a second string side for Chelsea. Could lose our momentum, confidence and ultimately our chance of PL survival. 

 

For me if Vardy and Cambiasso are match fit, play them, and if they are tired after 60/65 minutes take them off. I don't think we can afford to rest them for any game till the end of the season regardless of who we are playing. 

 

this is the part where youre getting confused.

 

theres a difference between not playing our strongest IX & playing a 2nd string side

[shailen]

this is the part where youre getting confused.

 

theres a difference between not playing our strongest IX & playing a 2nd string side

 

I'm not confused at all. I think you're being naive to think we have depth in our squad to replace certain players. Like I've said before if the players are unfit, don't play them against Chelsea, but it's just a disaster waiting to happen if we try to sacrifice certain games in order to win others. If we don't beat Newcastle or Southampton, we may look back at the Chelsea game in regret for not playing certain players. I'd rather we go with our strongest side and at least we can say we gave it a go in every game. 

 

We need to look at our priorities at the moment. Our priorities are points. We need points still to ensure we stay in this division. Therefore we can't have any free games, because we could easily lose some games that we should win. An acceptance of defeat against Chelsea, isn't an attitude we should have, because a bad defeat could be followed by a few more and we may not be able to recover after that. Momentum is massive for anyone in a relegation battle. 

[sylofox]

this is the part where youre getting confused.

 

theres a difference between not playing our strongest IX & playing a 2nd string side

One thing is for sure if we play with 9 we are fvcked lol 

[iancognito]

Were not going to beat chelsea, play Wood and Ulloa up front and just keep hoofing the ball up to them, save our quick players for the rest of the games.

 

You can't go into a game thinking like that, all teams are beatable.

[Webbo]

Our strongest side have a better chance of beating Newcastle than Chelsea, therefore it makes sense to rest players against chelsea. Cambiasso and Vardy are vital to our chances of staying up, we can't risk them being knackered  for our winnable games.

[Zapp]

One thing is for sure if we play with 9 we are fvcked lol

 

i cant argue with that haha! serves me right for getting roman numerals involved!

 

I'm not confused at all. I think you're being naive to think we have depth in our squad to replace certain players. Like I've said before if the players are unfit, don't play them against Chelsea, but it's just a disaster waiting to happen if we try to sacrifice certain games in order to win others. If we don't beat Newcastle or Southampton, we may look back at the Chelsea game in regret for not playing certain players. I'd rather we go with our strongest side and at least we can say we gave it a go in every game. 

 

We need to look at our priorities at the moment. Our priorities are points. We need points still to ensure we stay in this division. Therefore we can't have any free games, because we could easily lose some games that we should win. An acceptance of defeat against Chelsea, isn't an attitude we should have, because a bad defeat could be followed by a few more and we may not be able to recover after that. Momentum is massive for anyone in a relegation battle. 

 

is naive word of the day?

 

"priorities are points" - duh

"a bad defeat could be followed by a few more" - a bad defeat could be a timely reminder where we are and be followed by a resurgent performance

"momentum is massive" - a defeat from our game in hand to the premier league champions in the making should not stop momentum

 

 

it just sounds like you think our morale is so fragile we will collapse and get relegated if we lose. 

[shailen]

i cant argue with that haha! serves me right for getting roman numerals involved!

 

 

is naive word of the day?

 

"priorities are points" - duh

"a bad defeat could be followed by a few more" - a bad defeat could be a timely reminder where we are and be followed by a resurgent performance

"momentum is massive" - a defeat from our game in hand to the premier league champions in the making should not stop momentum

 

 

it just sounds like you think our morale is so fragile we will collapse and get relegated if we lose. 

 

Clearly you're over confident that we are almost guaranteed to beat Newcastle. Where were you a few weeks back when we were nowhere near the position we are in? I did not hear the same confidence. Anyone writing off the Chelsea game need to be reminded of what we did to United, what Burnley did to Man City and Chelsea. Football is unpredictable.What we have done in the last four weeks is unpredictable. Why should we fear Chelsea? If we play like we did against Swansea we can give anyone a game. Imagine the confidence we get if we beat Chelsea. Everyone would fear us more so if we can put out that sort of statement.  

[desertfox2]

A Wednesday night game followed by a sat lunchtime kick off is a lot to ask professional or not. Especially for cambiasso and players having knocks.

I actually think Pearson saw this coming hence drinkwater starting at Burnley.

I'd go for

5-3-2 when they have the ball 3 5 2 when we do.

Kasper

Schlupp (if fit)

wes

Was

Huth

Albrighton

Hammond

Drinkwater

James

Ulloa only in front of Nuge for set pieces

Kramaric

After 60/70 mins if we are protecting a win or drawing put on cambiasso to steady the ship. If not don't bring him on

King I would bring on regardless at 60/70 mins.

Vardy on for ulloa only if we are a goal down after 70 mins

Mahrez on for Albrighton at 60/70 mins unless we are protecting a lead.

Nugent on for ulloa (if we don't have to use vardy or cambiasso)

[desertfox2]

Against Newcastle same side that beat swansea. Maybe Kram in for ulloa depending on how they play against Chelski