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Sandro - Beast

I rate Sandro higher than Dembele. Would it be wrong to pick what I consider to be the strongest side against Chelsea? Especially when Sandro is on form.

I'd have Defoe on the bench. He has been on form but Soldado is still the better striker. I would monitor Soldado's performance though, and that of Chelsea's defence, so I could identify if a change would be required.

I like Holtby but he and Eriksen are competing for the same spot. I'd be happy with either starting.
 
i don't care how else the team looks, Sandro for me with his level of performances and consistency should always be first name on the team sheet
 
This is the kind of game Sandro is perfect for when we will need to be sharp defensively but Dembele has been phenomenal the last two games, really back on form.
 
I think we have looked a little open at the back during counters though, it's just that Norwich and Cardiff were too pathetic to punish us. Chelsea surely will have no problems doing so, so I'd rather have a dedicated DM there and bring Dembele on later after they've tired a bit (I expect them to hit us with an initial burst since we tend to look a little shaky in the opening few minutes before settling down). What's really key are the wide players though ... they *must* protect our flanks, considering how much Mourinho will surely target our FBs.
 
There's no way Sandro will start against Chelsea - he's not ready yet to play such a big game in the premier league. He's getting there, but it's better for him to keep to the Europa League and cup games for another month or so.
 
So those who want Sandro to start, do you drop Dembele or Paulinho? I think Dembele was better last game though Paulinho won the match. Paulinho passes quicker though which I prefer.
 
Jumpers said:
I find it interesting that people think Sandro is still working his way back to fitness. He is fully fit now, has been for a while.

People need to start getting used to the fact that the reason Sandro isn't starting in the Premiership isn't because he is being slowly reintroduced. It is because, unlike many fans views, he isn't regarded as an automatic first choice player at the moment. Dembele, Paulinho and Eriksen is our current preferred Premiership midfield it seems (although I wouldn't be shocked if Sandro comes in if we need to be more defensive) but one thing I love about AVB is that he does tend to stick with a winning team and I have little doubt that Sandro will win his place back in the side soon.
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Depends. If you're only talking physical fitness then you might be right. If you're talking match fitness I don't think he's been fit for a while and I'm not even sure he's fully up to speed yet.

No doubt if we had the squad from last season he would have already started PL games, but with our strength in depth there's no need to rush him back.

Interesting time for this discussion, with them down the road seeing Ramsey return to a better level of performance how long after he returned from injury? Almost a year?

Mosquito_Coasting said:
So those who want Sandro to start, do you drop Dembele or Paulinho? I think Dembele was better last game though Paulinho won the match. Paulinho passes quicker though which I prefer.
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Neither for me, for the Chelsea game at least. At least that's an option, and wanting Sandro to start doesn't necessarily imply that one of Dembele or Paulinho has to be placed on the bench (I prefer that term to the term "dropped" since we now actually have a squad).

Central trio of Sandro, Paulinho and Dembele to make us tight in midfield and match Chelsea for numbers. Lamela and Eriksen in the wide attacking roles.

If we go 4-2-3-1 I think Sandro and Paulinho is our best option though. It's close though.
 
I quite like that BC but worry we won't be able to move the ball as smoothly without Eriksen. Maybe it being Chelsea we will have more space.
 
If Chelsea set themselves up similar to how they did at Old Trafford would it negate the need to start with Sandro? Maybe it would be better to save him for later in the game
 
Mosquito_Coasting said:
I mean Eriksen centrally.
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That, along with of course one less typical attacking third player on the pitch (Townsend, Chadli, Sig or Holtby) are probably the most obvious trade-offs.

billyiddo said:
If Chelsea set themselves up similar to how they did at Old Trafford would it negate the need to start with Sandro? Maybe it would be better to save him for later in the game
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If they set up similarly to that (seems at least somewhat possible) then they're obviously going to try to attack us on the break as their primary attacking option. Not unlike what Arsenal did to us at the Emirates after they went 1-0 up. Chelsea have some fantastic counter attacking players in their side, even with Ramires out. Players like Hazard, Eto'o/Torres and Schurrle could give us serious problems on the break. Sandro is great when we're put under sustained pressure, but he's also one of the best players around when it comes to preventing and stopping counter attacks.

Dembele is obviously also very good at this (and I think Paulinho is good too) and a 4-2-3-1 with Dembele and Paulinho wouldn't make us soft, but we would be even more solid with Sandro in there. This again could help us put more sustained pressure on Chelsea if we can win back the ball quickly and keep them from playing and counter attacking as effectively.

Committing players forward is very close to a zero sum game I think, although Sandro, Paulinho and Dembele might be viewed as a very defensive line-up that might allow us to push Walker and Rose further up the pitch and thus giving us more width when we attack. Considering that we might see us line-up without traditional wingers and Chelsea might sit back that added width might be valuable.
 
Mosquito_Coasting said:
So those who want Sandro to start, do you drop Dembele or Paulinho? I think Dembele was better last game though Paulinho won the match. Paulinho passes quicker though which I prefer.
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I don't think many people feel that strongly about it one way or the other - it's so close between the two that there's a perfectly strong case to be made for either. Certainly that's my feeling - whichever name appears on the teamsheet I'll be cool with.
 
[video=youtube;GK1_G_W02I8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GK1_G_W02I8[/video]
 
I arrived at work this morning to discover a friend has dropped off Sandro's shirt from the Swansea game for me. Not sure how he came to be in possession of it yet, but a very welcome gift.

First thing that struck me though, is Sandro's not as big as I thought. Whilst the shirt would be very 'cosy' around my belly he's quite slight of shoulder - makes it even more impressive that he outmuscles everyone despite having a smaller frame.
 
chancer said:
I don't think many people feel that strongly about it one way or the other - it's so close between the two that there's a perfectly strong case to be made for either. Certainly that's my feeling - whichever name appears on the teamsheet I'll be cool with.
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I honestly don't get the big deal with Dembele. His dribbling is great, yes, but that's pretty much it. No incisive passing, no creativity, no muscle in a challenge. With Dembele and Paulinho, we've pretty much given up all hope of winning the ball in midfield. Just look at how easily Chelsea steamrollered us second half once they decided to start attacking. Sandro should be first name on the team sheet for me, week in week out. I honestly think people have simply forgotten how good he is because he was injured so long.

Edit: grammar
 
BedfordBen said:
I honestly don't get the big deal with Dembele. His dribbling is great, yes, but that's pretty much it. No incisive passing, no creativity, no muscle in a challenge. With Dembele and Paulinho, we've pretty much given up all hope of winning the ball in midfield. Just look at how easily Chelsea steamrollered us second half once they decided to start attacking. Sandro should be first name on the team sheet for me, week in week out. I honestly think people have simply forgotten how good he is because he was injured so long.

Edit: grammar
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Same here. I also think that playing Sandro would give Paulinho a bit more license to roam forward (I know he already does this, but he seems to alternate with Dembele).
 
Yup, what does Dembele offer except for lung busting runs? He rarely plays assists, rarely scores and too often runs down blind alleys and then slows play down to a walk.

At first, I was impressed by the way that he went past opponents. Now, I can see the sum of his parts is less than that offered by Sandro.
 
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