Monday 14 September 2009

Ireland doubt for derby

Bad news from the M.E.N. this morning: Stephen Ireland is an injury doubt for the derby next Sunday. Combined with the absences of Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tévez, Robinho and Vincent Kompany - and presuming that Adebayor gets the ban he deserves - we're left rather short.
But Ireland suffered an aggravation of the ankle problem which affected him in the win at Portsmouth a fortnight earlier.

"On Saturday it was touch and go whether he went out for the second-half, so we had to get him off," said manager Mark Hughes.
We will be very limited on Sunday without him. This is the best team I can come up with:


It's not a bad team. It could well be enough to beat West Ham at home two weeks' today. But to get anything from Old Trafford? It's a long shot. I suppose there is one alternative - a first start for Vladi Weiss, on the biggest of stages. How does this look?


I'll stick with the first one. It's a solid midfield base - we can try to swamp Carrick and Fletcher and hope to catch them with our pace on the break. But I'm not holding out much hope for a result.

3 comments:

newsoftheblues said...

well IReland hasnt been effective this season anyway, and has left a gap in the middle, we will miss hsi creative ability, but we will be more solid agree with the 1st

Culla said...

option 1 to start then option 2 early in the second half. this is still a good team able to give them a game. petrov at the 2-1 win at OT caused them a lot of problems.

Unknown said...

Agree with the first side though would swap Zab and Barry round as they are R and L footed respectively. I think Hughes might have been expecting to have dropped Micah by now and bring Zab in at RB, but in fairness until one of his headless chicken moments costs us a game he has done enough to keep the shirt.

As a 1st eleven, that team can beat United. Its all about the midfield 3 as you say. If De Jong plays as he did against the Arse, we can have them. Barry and Bridge can hold the left side, and Petrov can play further forward than SWP. He has a point to prove, and Rob is out. He can play 6 games on the trot if he plays well here.