Yeah that is the best combination. I would prefer to drop Rojo though. He hasn't played badly at all but he could easily have been the villain of the piece way before Felliani was against Everton with that horror tackle.And I just don't have as much faith in him as the resurgent Jones.

Mind you, it's left back that's our problem. Apart from Shaw, all the other replacements can be skinned and I'd rather play Blind than Rojo or Darmain. Can TFM play there? I think he has already once?


Yep. Nice to have proper competition for places back again isn't it?

I'll put my neck on the line and say Jones should be next starter after Bailly.

Whatever he lacks, he more than makes up for in determination and somehow sheer ability to just be in the way, even if it seems more luck than planned.

Jones and Bailly should make an awesome combination.

My ideal defensive line would be (if all fit):-

LB: Shaw
RB: Valencia
CB: Smalling
CB: Bailly

I quite like the combinations there, and think that we could do well if that were to be put out.

worked fantastically against Watford.

Does one match mean that particular set of players cannot and should not play together again?

Isn't it funny how times and form changes? Nobody, but nobody on this forum would even thinking of replacing Valencia at RB

Does one post mean thats what i was saying?

Dont be so touchy my journalistic friend

A bit of an unexpected result at Everton, but that does mean we can with a win cut the gap to Arsenal to single digits, which would look a tad bit better than it currently does.

Rojo and Jones did well against Kane this past weekend, and he's only 2cm shorter than Benteke. So the height isn't an issue, the strength might be, but I think that whilst we may have mocked Jones for his fragility, and to a lesser extent Rojo, but are strong defenders. I'd be happy to see them continue and slowly bring Bailly back in as I'm sure he'll be needed over the up coming festive fixture list.

As for when everyone is fit, right now it would for me be,

Valencia, Jones, Rojo, Shaw.

I say that as Shaw is our only proper left back, but the other 3 are all performing well, why break a developing partnership if it's doing well?? Bailly to come in for who ever gets injured first and then Smalling. Smalling's performances this year and subsequent injury have sent him down to 4th spot.

Kane is nothing like Benteke, despite their similar height.

Palace's game plan is 'cross it to Benteke', more often than not. Kane isn't that type of player, at all.

Height may well be an issue, hence my original post.

Plus to my mind Benteke is stronger than Kane, so he will need dealing with in that sense, and Bailly would be I think the best option to deal with him in that department, as I don't think anyone can bully him.

To be fair, Tribec did mention Benteke's strength.

He's no Lukaku/Drogba/Ibrahimovic, mind.

I would think he is stronger than Drogba, considering he is almost retired now I think, and training with Ibra will only get him stronger as time goes by.
As for Lukaku, you may have a point, but I wouldn't say it was overwhelmingly in Lukaku's favour that battle, shame that we couldn't have seen it in the match recently.

José having a bit of fun at Owen's expense:-

https://twitter.com/Lloydie84/status/808797468171366400

What?

I obviously didn't mean Drogba now, I meant in his pomp. And I was talking about Benteke, not Bailly.

Ahh okay, at least that is cleared up!

Nice win vs Palace, we outplayed the opposition as usual these days, the dodgy referee's errors roughly balanced out, and that clean Pogba-Ibra strike from a narrow angle at the end made me remember the old Fergie days!

Unbeaten now in 9, all competitions.

Yeah, that was an assist-finish delight I felt sure that was heading for another draw. Pogba still gave the ball away too much for my liking and I would have had Jones, Carrick or Zlatan ahead of him for MOTM but he did play miles better than against Everton.

Rojo is a liability though.

It's nailed on that he'll get a red card soon, and probably for something not deserving of it either. The media shitstorm of the past few days will see to that. BT's coverage the other night was an absolute disgrace.

Nice to be back in action!

I missed the forums whilst they were read only!

It was disgraceful I agree, so one sided, the completely deliberate hand ball and Mate's goal was barely talked about.

We fully deserved to win that match by far more goals than we did, but the coverage was about Rojo's challenge.

Wonder if any of the banned members from this thread will be back soon ? If digitalspy really do look at lifting banned users

That would hopefully make for interesting times around here!

Predictions for tomorrow everyone?

I think we are due a big win so il say 4 nil.

I think once we hit a good run of wins our luck will turn....heres hoping anyway