Sporting sack Costinha ahead of Rangers tie

[Zappa 0]

Jelavic, Diouf, Weiss, Davis, Edu, Naismith. They're not bad.

 

You're right, but they've got the likes of Maniche, Postiga and the cracking Chilean player Fernandez. They are still in 3rd spot in a tough league dominated by Benfica and Porto. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather be playing Sporting than Porto, but we'll need to up our game from recent performances if we're going to beat them and progress.

[Danny 0]

You're right, but they've got the likes of Maniche, Postiga and the cracking Chilean player Fernandez. They are still in 3rd spot in a tough league dominated by Benfica and Porto. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather be playing Sporting than Porto, but we'll need to up our game from recent performances if we're going to beat them and progress.

 

Oh we are the underdogs. Against just about everyone. But those are the conditions we thrive in and our team really isn't that bad at full strength. As long as Uncle Walter gets the tactics right.

[Zappa 0]

Does Mendes still play for them?

 

Yes, but hasn't played too much this season.

 

Jelavic can't play as far as I'm aware.

 

Correct, he can't play.

 

Diouf I will give you but is he definitely allowed to play?.

 

He hasn't played in Europe this season, so presumably he can play.

[Totti 0]

All Walter will do is defend and hope for a lucky goal so yeah lets hope thats enough...again.

 

One key problem is we don't just need luck this time round, we actually need to learn to defend too.

[Frankie 8,692]

Without Jelavic and with Miller gone means I doubt we have the quality up front to cause many teams problems in the Europa Cup this season. Lafferty's touch is not the best and Healy won't be used as a lone front man so really unsure how we'll be able to do anything other than park the bus and hope to nick goals again.

 

Depressing but true.

 

EDIT: Forgot about Diouf so let's turn the frowns upside down!

[Danny 0]

Without Jelavic and with Miller gone means I doubt we have the quality up front to cause many teams problems in the Europa Cup this season. Lafferty's touch is not the best and Healy won't be used as a lone front man so really unsure how we'll be able to do anything other than park the bus and hope to nick goals again.

 

Depressing but true.

 

EDIT: Forgot about Diouf so let's turn the frowns upside down!

 

:sd::me::jn:

:sn:------------------------------:vw:

:ehd:

 

That's not bad really.

[Zappa 0]

Without Jelavic and with Miller gone means I doubt we have the quality up front to cause many teams problems in the Europa Cup this season. Lafferty's touch is not the best and Healy won't be used as a lone front man so really unsure how we'll be able to do anything other than park the bus and hope to nick goals again.

 

Depressing but true.

 

EDIT: Forgot about Diouf so let's turn the frowns upside down!

 

Maybe Walter will use Naismith in the lone striker role? It'll probably be Lafferty, but going by the performance against Sevilla, Naismith might not be a bad shout.

[Frankie 8,692]

:sd::me::jn:

:sn:------------------------------:vw:

:ehd:

 

That's not bad really.

 

We all thought that before the Celtic game and that was with Jelavic playing...

 

A 4-5-1 is absolutely fine by me but if we don't support the striker and our midfield/full-backs sit too deep, then it soon becomes difficult to retain possession in forward areas. That's what happened against Celtic and the lack of work-rate in our midfield has been evident for far too long to be confident of it changing anytime soon.

[Zappa 0]

Who's Liedson?

 

Don't know if you were joking or fishing again, but I'll bite for the sake of it...

 

Born in Brazil, chose to play for Portugal, but didn't get that many caps. Played for Sporting for 8 years, scoring 173 goals in 313 appearances and averaging over 20 goals per season. Scored 35 goals for Sporting one season when he was in his prime. That's the season they were UEFA cup runners up 6 or 7 years ago.

Edited February 10, 2011 by Zappa
typo

[Danny 0]

We all thought that before the Celtic game and that was with Jelavic playing...

 

A 4-5-1 is absolutely fine by me but if we don't support the striker and our midfield/full-backs sit too deep, then it soon becomes difficult to retain possession in forward areas. That's what happened against Celtic and the lack of work-rate in our midfield has been evident for far too long to be confident of it changing anytime soon.

 

This is why I did add a disclaimer about Uncle Walter's tactics.