who would you rest for the Chelsea game?

[NotTheMarketLeader]

I haven't read all the posts but the suggestion we should rest players is absurd.

In doing so you are saying its a game we cannot possibly (zero chance) even get a draw.

Good job we didn't play a weakened side for Arsenal or Man Utd at home or we may now be back on 27pts!

Only muppets would go along with this idea

[desertfox2]

I haven't read all the posts but the suggestion we should rest players is absurd.

In doing so you are saying its a game we cannot possibly (zero chance) even get a draw.

Good job we didn't play a weakened side for Arsenal or Man Utd at home or we may now be back on 27pts!

Only muppets would go along with this idea

Vardy playing with an injection at Burnley, if true, resting him is fair enough we can't risk him being out for a while.. Cambiasso probably can't play 3 games a week. So he may need to be managed.

[DANGEROUS TIGER]

I think we should play a full strength team and try to beat Chelsea.

This.

[Zapp]

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.  

 

you sound like you think we're more likely to beat chelsea than newcastle

[TJB-fox]

Play the strongest 11 possible, if this was away then maybe consider resting 1/2. However, at home (even though we've been relatively poor at the KP all year) this game is a much different animal. NP keeps saying take one game at a time, so surely we'll start the likes of Cambiasso. Risky strategy resting players in the hope we beat the toon. What if we lost both? Can actually imagine us losing against Newcastle (it would be the Leicester way) so we should just have a go Wednesday night with the crowd behind us and the pressure off.

[Gerard]

Maybe Cambiasso if HE feels three games in a week is too much, he's experienced, intelligent and humble enough to know his own body and relay his thoughts to Pearson.

 

If Vardy needs pain killing injections then maybe he should be rested.

 

I think 1-0 to either side is a probable result as Chelsea have only scored twice in the last three matches. Costa is out, I'm pretty sure Fabregas is suspended and Oscar won't play due to his concussion. Chelsea could line up like this:

 

Courtois

 

Ivanovic

Cahill

Terry

Azpilicueta

 

Matic

Mikel

 

Ramires

Hazard

Willian

 

Drogba

 

Drogba looks finished and I don't see too many goals in that team. We shouldn't have one eye on the Newcastle match, try at least and not get beat against Chelsea and hopefully get a win. 

 

We'll have plenty of time to worry about Newcastle on Thursday morning. 

[Zapp]

Couldn't agree more....Should go with our strongest available XI in all of our last 5 games...Injuries should be the only consideration for any changes. Form at the moment is not an issue !

 

what if vardy is 70% fit

would you play him wednesday so he wont be fully fit for saturday (or worst case get injured)

or rest him so hes 100% saturday

 

 

i would bench him, then bring him on if we're still in the game with 20 mins to go

 

your logic suggests play him regardless

[LCCFox96]

We aren't safe yet. We should go full strength in my opinion. Unless injury issues dictate that Cambiasso and Vardy should not play then, as two of our strongest performers recently, they should both be in the side. The only changes made should be tactical ones displaying our intent to get a result in the game. 

 

That being said I could see Schlupp coming back in for the home game to try and cause Ivanovic problems down our left flank.

[TheLittleBigMan]

Play full strength, we're out of time for resting players. Your fit you play, tough sh*t  if your tired. 

[80footgiraffe]

I'd go for 



   -----------------------------Schmeichel----------------------------

 

 

---De Laet-----Morgan-----Wasilewski-----Huth------Konchesky---

 

 

-----------------------Hammond------------King-----------------------

 

 

---Mahrez-------------------------------------------------Schlupp-----

 

 

------------------------------Kramaric-----------------------------------

 

 

 

[Gerard]

I'd go for 

   -----------------------------Schmeichel----------------------------

 

 

---De Laet-----Morgan-----Wasilewski-----Huth------Konchesky---

 

 

-----------------------Hammond------------King-----------------------

 

 

---Mahrez-------------------------------------------------Schlupp-----

 

 

------------------------------Kramaric-----------------------------------

 

 

--------------------------------Ulloa--------------------------------------

 

Ah the old 5-4-2.

 

If the authorities allow us I would also like to see us play this formation, that would really give Mourinho something to moan about. 

[shailen]

you sound like you think we're more likely to beat chelsea than newcastle

 

You love jumping to conclusions. Nope I never said that, read my posts more carefully. My point is that we haven't got a lot of games and we need points. We have to go full strength in every game. I don't believe in resting our star players unless it is clear that they are not match fit. Players may pick up an injury, but I reckon it's a risk we have to take at this stage of the season. We haven't got the games left to afford to write any of them off. We look to win every single game.

[CosbehFox]

I haven't read all the posts but the suggestion we should rest players is absurd.

In doing so you are saying its a game we cannot possibly (zero chance) even get a draw.

Good job we didn't play a weakened side for Arsenal or Man Utd at home or we may now be back on 27pts!

Only muppets would go along with this idea

Liverpool away was a starting XI quite different from the previous game off memory. We looked sharper than them that day who played a similar team.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Gor for it and try to keep positive performances / results going. Don't want us to field a weakened side and take a hammering both in terms of the result and confidence, just keep doing what we're doing.

 

*Regarding resting Cambiasso, he might be nearing the end of his career but he's still a professional athlete and has not long had a fortnight off for the international break - I'm sure he'll be fine playing a solitary midweek fixture between now and the season's end.

[shailen]

I haven't read all the posts but the suggestion we should rest players is absurd.

In doing so you are saying its a game we cannot possibly (zero chance) even get a draw.

Good job we didn't play a weakened side for Arsenal or Man Utd at home or we may now be back on 27pts!

Only muppets would go along with this idea

 

Could not agree more. if this was the case, we should have penciled in 8 defeats at the start of the season and the season would consist of 30 games. 

[6ups 6downs 2 cups]

Winning teams always find that extra energy, players will want to play in this one, Pearson will probably change a couple though, especially as we are playing Wednesday, then Saturday earlier kick off.

[Nationwider]

I think there's a strong chance that Cambiasso will be rested.  Hopefully he'll play though - with the momentum we have, we will hopefully throw everything we have into getting at least 4 points out of the next two games.

 

If Vardy is fit, he'll play.  Players play with injections all the time so there'll have to be a pretty strong argument from the club docs to prevent him starting.

 

Ulloa might be benched - I think Terry and Cahill would happily play against him any day, rather than the pace of Vardy, Mahrez.

 

I think he'll go for:

 

Kasper - Huth, Wes, Was - Albrighton, Schlupp - Drinkwater, King, James/Cambiasso - Mahrez/Nugent, Vardy

[Zapp]

You love jumping to conclusions. Nope I never said that, read my posts more carefully. My point is that we haven't got a lot of games and we need points. We have to go full strength in every game. I don't believe in resting our star players unless it is clear that they are not match fit. Players may pick up an injury, but I reckon it's a risk we have to take at this stage of the season. We haven't got the games left to afford to write any of them off. We look to win every single game.

 

im actually doing it on purpose to see if you could realise it is exactly what you were doing with my posts. 

 

you couldnt. possibly something to look into in future to make people listen seriously to your points.

[Guest Col city fan]

I get the point about being on a roll, being confident and letting it continue etc...

I get that.

But, I think it's time to just be sensible. Chelsea are a very strong side, Mourinho is a bloody wizard in setting up his teams for not losing, or sneaking one nil wins etc.

Let's play a decent side on Wednesday, but rest a couple of our key men, with a view to really going for it against Newcastle who really are currently awful.

Let's be pragmatic about it. Losing (or not beating) the league leaders will not be much of a problem if we then go on to win those final few, very winnable, games.

Cambiasso needs a breather, and I'd rather rest and play a fully fit and firing Vardy against a hugely fragile Newcastle defence.

[shailen]

im actually doing it on purpose to see if you could realise it is exactly what you were doing with my posts. 

 

you couldnt. possibly something to look into in future to make people listen seriously to your points.

 

Have no idea how I jumped conclusions to say that the Chelsea game should not be written off but whatever, your mind games are clearly too much for me 

[shailen]

I get the point about being on a roll, being confident and letting it continue etc...

I get that.

But, I think it's time to just be sensible. Chelsea are a very strong side, Mourinho is a bloody wizard in setting up his teams for not losing, or sneaking one nil wins etc.

Let's play a decent side on Wednesday, but rest a couple of our key men, with a view to really going for it against Newcastle who really are currently awful.

Let's be pragmatic about it. Losing (or not beating) the league leaders will not be much of a problem if we then go on to win those final few, very winnable, games.

Cambiasso needs a breather, and I'd rather rest and play a fully fit and firing Vardy against a hugely fragile Newcastle defence.

 

I get this point, but if both are fit why can't we play them in both games. If Vardy and Cambiasso have good games on Wednesday, surely that adrenaline and extra confidence will result in them performing against Newcastle. Vardy is used to playing three times a week from last year and if things are going badly on Wednesday we can take him off early then to rest him. I just think we cannot afford to rest players for any games we have left. If Nige feels that Vardy is not the best option for tactical reasons, I can accept that. But resting him when he is the best player and fit in a certain role is a no-no for me. 

[benpicko]

I'd rest Konchesky forever, and also we should get GTF back so that the only two matches he plays for us this season are against Chelsea

[Leicesterpool]

I wouldn't mind seeing Wood getting a run out.

[Raw Dykes]

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. 

 

I suppose you could say that it would be naive to think that going from lying on your back to lying on your front would help your chances of winning a football match, yes.

 

 

Ah the old 5-4-2.

 

If the authorities allow us I would also like to see us play this formation, that would really give Mourinho something to moan about. 

 

It's amazing how many people are picking 12 players for this match. One even picked 13.

 

 

You love jumping to conclusions. Nope I never said that, read my posts more carefully. My point is that we haven't got a lot of games and we need points. We have to go full strength in every game. I don't believe in resting our star players unless it is clear that they are not match fit. Players may pick up an injury, but I reckon it's a risk we have to take at this stage of the season. We haven't got the games left to afford to write any of them off. We look to win every single game.

 

I get the feeling that you're just not getting it. Do you realise that the people arguing for resting our best players want the club to win as many points as possible? Why should we go full strength against the very soon to be champions, when we'll almost certainly not win anyway, and only hurt our chances in the much more winnable match just 64 hours later? I don't think we disagree that much - I'm not suggesting wholesale changes - just rest 2 or 3 key players.

 

While we're throwing the word naive around all over the place - don't you think it's a bit naive to expect a result against the league leaders?

[LJS]

Start with our strongest eleven. It isn't like we've been playing twice a week over a long period so the players should be fine. If we look out of it after an hour then make some changes and keep the shape to prevent a thrashing. But we must treat every game as an opportunity to win points. If we can't beat a poor and terribly out of form Newcastle side because we've played a single extra match then we don't deserve to stay up anyway.

I do understand the arguments as to why we should rest players but there are two very real dangers with that approach. Firstly, we end up battered by the best team in the league and confidence is shot. And second we lose all momentum in the same we we did after fielding a weakened team in the Cup against Huddersfield a couple of years back. Our players need to play to maintain our momentum.