would you start peter on tuesday?

[spider-neil]

a much easier poll than my last debacle ;)

[Glen C]

crouch always seems to play and score against the gooners. The gooners seem to struggle in the air at the back. Same as when they played chelski.

[Jose Jones]

It's a toughy, but I'm going to go for no.

I'll have Carra at centre-back though please Rafa.

[Dirk]

What do you mean, would I rather have Crouch play centre back on tuedsdayyes and Man Utd finish 5th?

[wiiksie]

What do you mean, would I rather have Crouch play centre back on tuedsdayyes and Man Utd finish 5th?

haha brilliant that Dirk.

 

No, by the way.

[spider-neil]

What do you mean, would I rather have Crouch play centre back on tuedsdayyes and Man Utd finish 5th?

 

:P

[Hazel Motes]

Private poll? Buuuuh!!!

[WaltonRed]

One swallow doesnt make a summer...

 

If it aint broke dont fix it...

[Randy Marsh]

The more i think about it, the more i believe he will start. The quotes from Rafa over the weekend and today saying "we can play with two upfront, its not a problem" lead me to believe he may have a suprise up his sleave. They, and the press, think they have Rafas team for tomorow, which im sure Rafa will not be comfortable with. He always likes to suprise the opposition. I can see Crouch getting a start, whether thats in a 442 or 4231 with torres dropping deaper to accomodate him, i dont know. But his record against them, and his ability to hold the ball up could prove a vital weapon for us tomorrow. They hate playing against him. I like the 4231 but we have seen against top teams like the mancs, it can become less effective as the lone striker becomes isolated with the 3 attacking mids spending alot of time deeper, defending. I can see Rafa springing a suprise tomorrow.

[Dirk]

One swallow doesnt make a summer...

 

If it aint broke dont fix it...

 

4 goals in his last two starts against Arsenal. It's not to be sniffed at.

[Brownie]

I still don't know - I keep thinking about it and can't decide. There's pro's and con's to each different shape we can go with.

 

If we go 4-4-2 with Torres and Crouch up front, then obviously we have a massive threat. They can't handle Crouch and that will give Torres space to work as well. The downside is that Gerrard would have to be really disciplined and we'd lose his drive going forward - we'd also be a man down in midfield and it could make it harder to stop them from scoring.

 

We could keep the present shape and put Torres out in one of the wide positions but I don't think that's what we should do. He would have to do a lot of covering and it would totally negate his strengths, IMO.

 

As I say, I just don't know at the moment!

 

I'd be equally happy with 4-2-3-1 and no Crouch, or 4-4-2 with Crouch.

[Randy Marsh]

I still don't know - I keep thinking about it and can't decide. There's pro's and con's to each different shape we can go with.

 

If we go 4-4-2 with Torres and Crouch up front, then obviously we have a massive threat. They can't handle Crouch and that will give Torres space to work as well. The downside is that Gerrard would have to be really disciplined and we'd lose his drive going forward - we'd also be a man down in midfield and it could make it harder to stop them from scoring.

 

We could keep the present shape and put Torres out in one of the wide positions but I don't think that's what we should do. He would have to do a lot of covering and it would totally negate his strengths, IMO.

 

As I say, I just don't know at the moment!

 

I'd be equally happy with 4-2-3-1 and no Crouch, or 4-4-2 with Crouch.

 

Spot on Brownie. My feelings exactly mate

[Dirk]

It's possible to play 4-2-3-1 and use both Crouch and Torres. Drop Dirk and put Nando on the right. Crouch, with Babel and Torres breaking on with pace could be quite useful. However, I'm not sure if now is the time to be experimenting.

[wiiksie]

Playing Crouch alongside Torres would give us a bit more going forward I think, but Kuyt would make us more compact. I know which approach the Boss will go for.

[Brownie]

It's possible to play 4-2-3-1 and use both Crouch and Torres. Drop Dirk and put Nando on the right. Crouch, with Babel and Torres breaking on with pace could be quite useful. However, I'm not sure if now is the time to be experimenting.

 

The problem with that, is Clichy. We all saw how much work Kuyt had to do defensively. I'm not saying Torres wouldn't do it - i'm sure he would, but it would negate his strengths and affect our performance I think.

 

The counter argument to that is obviously that Torres could pre-occupy Clichy so much that he wouldn't want to be bombing forward.

 

As you say though no point in experimenting.

[G Richards]

However, I'm not sure if now is the time to be experimenting.

 

I think this is the key.

 

Including Crouch is a tantalising prospect, especially since he seems to do so well against Arsenal. But we don't know if somehow Crouchy would turn in an inferior performance becasue he would be in Torres' shadow, and we don't know if Torres would be less effective becasue he hadn't had the time to work it all out with Crouch.

 

With hindsight it would have been nice if Torres and Crouch had a run of games earlier in the season to see if they could form a partnership. They didn't, and so now is not the time to experiment.

 

4-2-3-1 for me with the same team. We are building something with that, and signings this summer should be made with a view to improving it (notably bringing in a pacy, overlapping fullback and improving on Kuyt, who, to be fair, is doing OK in this formation).

[dave u]

Arsenal's defenders are happy defending with their pace. They don't like to have to battle and compete, and they hate playing Crouch (and look what Drogba did to them the other week as well).

 

Crouch would be the first name on my teamsheet this week.

[spider-neil]

dave summed it up for me, they seemed to handle our pace with ease but crouch had them all over the shop.

I would be VERY tempted to go 4-3-3

[coop]

I would stick with Torres and see how its going until half time and the asses whether or not to go 4-4-2 in the second half.

 

We seem more comfortable playing in our current formation and i wouldnt drop Torres for Crouch in this crucial game.

[OnizukaEikichi]

if we can go through, i wouldnt care who plays

[silverlining]

if we can go through, i wouldnt care who plays

 

 

What a brain-meltingly retarded post.

[Bourbon]

Yes.

 

They don't like playing him - as the Skip says.

 

If it doesn't win us the tie within the first 50, take him off and go back to the system.

[Unrighteous]

What do you mean, would I rather have Crouch play centre back on tuedsdayyes and Man Utd finish 5th?

 

Quality!

[Tom R]

If there's one thing Arsenal have been very consistent with this season, it's not being able to cope with high balls in to the box. They're a fucking massive bag of shit at dealing with the type of high crosses that Crouch thrives on.

It's a no brainer that he should start. But I personally wouldn't opt for 4-4-2, I'd stick with teh current formation but with Crouch in Gerrards role and Gerrard out on the right. I'd then put Kuyt over on the left of the 3.

Stevie would probably spit his dummy though.

[Newport]

No, but he can definitely be a joker for us in the game.