Scum away. Saturday 12.30pm. BT shite.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Wanyama and Alderweireld are playing tonight, are you stating neither will play Saturday?

I don't care frankly. I'm asking you about 1 player In particular.

[Cripps]

The Mirror say Petr Cech is optimistic that he will win his race to be fit for the North London derby. #Arsenal https://t.co/sTn4EcdsEz

FFS

[HCZ]

I don't care frankly. I'm asking you about 1 player In particular.

Well your premise is based on if Aurier plays today he won’t play at the weekend

Wanyama and Alderweireld played tonight and I’m fairly sure they will be in the starting XI Saturday lunchtime

But as I say Monreal is slow and immobile, so whether Aurier plays or not he’s a weak link who will get exposed for pace.

[HCZ]

Anthony Taylor the referee

Fuck it all

[HCZ]

Why don't you value brains, or knowing where to stand, how to track your man, or how to defend, or how to cross a ball, or how to be an actual goal threat.....because those are all things he displays more consistently than any other individual in our back line.

I'd say those are staple qualities necessary in any game.

His positioning goes out the window when playing anyone with pace, if your plan is to play Mhkytarian as a wing back that leaves Monreal responsible for stopping a cross from the right coming into the box, again not a strong suit of his.

[Cripps]

Wenger on Poch's comments about tricking the opponent, says it used to be foreign players who were known for diving, "but I must say the English players learn very quickly and they may be the masters now."

Wenger

[Penguin]

His positioning goes out the window when playing anyone with pace, if your plan is to play Mhkytarian as a wing back that leaves Monreal responsible for stopping a cross from the right coming into the box, again not a strong suit of his.

Monreal does get caught out sometimes but you could same the same for any of our centre halves.

Who are the alternatives - Holding? Chambers? Elneny?

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Well your premise is based on if Aurier plays today he won’t play at the weekend

Wanyama and Alderweireld played tonight and I’m fairly sure they will be in the starting XI Saturday lunchtime

But as I say Monreal is slow and immobile, so whether Aurier plays or not he’s a weak link who will get exposed for pace.

I don't think Wanyama will play Saturday but Alderweireld has a 50/50 chance (Pochettino will be keen as he is their best defender arguably) as does Aurier in my personal view.

What you think you are omitting in deficiencies of Monreal you are simply replacing with the plethora of deficiencies in our other defenders.

Being exposed for pace in itself is often a consequence of poor positioning and positioning is something Monreal does better than anyone else in our backline .

[HCZ]

I don't think Wanyama will play Saturday but Alderweireld has a 50/50 chance (Pochettino will be keen as he is their best defender arguably) as does Aurier in my personal view.

What you think you are omitting in deficiencies of Monreal you are simply replacing with the plethora of deficiencies in our other defenders.

Being exposed for pace in itself is often a consequence of poor positioning and positioning is something Monreal does better than anyone else in our backline .

I disagree. I think Monreal got torn to shreds by Man City in November and he will be under all kinds of pressure again by the spurs attack, when we were pressed on the ball even by Swansea our casual midfield didn’t help our defence at all and once again Monreal was all over the shop.


Again we are discussing not just preferable team but preferable formation I think we should play four at the back so playing two centre backs in the traditional position makes sense and playing something both stronger and quicker than Monreal at full back (Kolasinac)

So my team would be

Cech (if fit)
Bellerin
Mustafi
Koscielny
Kolasinac
Elneny
Wilshere
Ozil
Mhkytarian
Aubemeyang
Lacazette

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Pochettino won't have missed the fact we've signed an Olympic athlete and with his rep for attention to detail he will know the more they push forward the more exposed they will be at the back and that might even play into our hands.

I can't even remember what Monreal was like against City....but that is 1 game against possibly the best side the prem has seen a few months ago. Anybody else you've named in your back 4 is just as likely and in most cases more likely to cost us the game with a mistake than Monreal.

We've given up more goals through errant passes, poor positioning, awareness and sheer lethargy than lack of pace from any individual so I think you are placing too much consideration on that anyway.

I also think with that team and formation we are going to get outnumbered in midfield and allow Spurs to control the game. If they control the game they will feed Kane multiple times. If they feed Kane through multiple times he will definitely score. If we were a highly disciplined, drilled counter attacking team like Leicester were when they won the title I'd name a very similar team and formation to the one you have but not in our actual circumstances now.