Asunto: u21 friendlies

And thanks for all your comments, at least I sparked a little debate here :-)

hehe, I am sure you'll do the right choice. ans maybe the form update tomorrow and on thursday will help a little as well!

yeah all will drop in form:-)

no way, gotta remain optimistic!

just look at the strikers in my team: their form is tragic (best striker), average (2nd best) and adequate (3rd), and it hasn't been better for weeks. I still keep hoping at every form update...;-)

Our former best U21 striker Robert Sithole was in hopeless-tragic form for full 2 seasons..at least!! I think he was unsatisfactory for 1 week:-)
He is now average in his 3rd season..

So Egypt played the same tactic in last 2 matches, so I'll risk it and assume he'll play it for a 3rd time:-)

I'm prepared for very high defense and left winger..

Exactly like with Kenya they have a nice defender on the right side, but their left side is much weaker, so we will again put the 2 strikers in there in our tactic

Also Marco Lingard managed to get out of his slump and rise to average form, so he is our clear starter..

Squad

1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Granwald Mabedi DEF
3 Musawenkosi Ngwenya DEF
4 Austin Sibaya DEF
5 Sibusiso Fredericks DEF
6 Paul Kalaka MID
7 Burton Felix MID
8 Marco Lingard MID
9 Arthur Serola ATT
10 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT
11 Granwald Masenia ATT

12 William Matshitse GK
13 Kelvin Lekgwathi DEF
14 Valentine Methula ATT
15 Bheki Lingard ATT
16 Shaun Ramulondi DEF

Set pieces

Free kick: Granwald Masenia
Penalty kick: Granwald Masenia

Conditional orders

Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Sibusiso Fredericks on position 1
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 2
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 3
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 4
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 5
70' always
Valentine Methula on position 11
60' always
Shaun Ramulondi on position 5
75' always
Bheki Lingard on position 10
(editado)

Cameroun together with Ghana might be the toughest African opponent and rival we will face this season. Looking deeper at their team they have much better players than I expected and based on just the value they have a better player on every single position than us except strikers..Luckily their attack is not that strong, otherwise they would be favourite in this match.

In any case it will be a great challange for us..we have to play much better to be succesfull than against Egypt and our strikers will have to be much mor efficient..

Here is the 1 st version of tactic. Since it will be a tough and I think prestigious match for the best team in Africa I would appriciate your comments. I'll play higher defense since their strikers are not that good and it's also usefull way to eliminate their superior MIDs and create territory advantage for our strikers. It will be all up to them in this match..I don't think he'll use winger, they like to play through the middle, so I'm keeping the defense line little tighter and closer together

Lehoko is coming back form injury so he will be a starter, substituted by Lingard - he will switch places with Burton Felix who will play full match instead of him, we need more offensive players to support our attack. All we need is to outscore them :-) The problem is he has only weak defense, so hopefully he won't cause any penalty :-) I don't want to play with 2 offensive MIDs and leave holes in our defense. Should I still play Felix over Lingard at n.6?

Burton Felix, age: 21 , sum(55)

club: Los Pinguinos, country: South Africa,
value: 8 940 023 Kč, wage: 81 001 Kč,
outstanding (12) form, formidable (11) tactical discipline,
height: 176 cm, ·weight: 77.6582 kg , BMI: 25.07
bookings:
Last update: 2012-10-04
solid (8) Stamina tragic (0) Keeper
excellent (10) Pace weak (4) Defender
very good (9) Technique excellent (10) Playmaker
formidable (11) Passing poor (3) Striker

Marco Lingard, age: 20 , sum(56)

club: FC MTG, country: South Africa,
value: 7 635 020 Kč, wage: 102 751 Kč,
average (5) form, excellent (10) tactical discipline,
height: 181 cm, ·weight: 79.2728 kg , BMI: 24.20

Last update: 2012-10-04
excellent (10) Stamina tragic (0) Keeper
excellent (10) Pace good (7) Defender
average (5) Technique solid (8) Playmaker - should pop to VG on Thursday
incredible (13) Passing poor (3) Striker

Squad (updated)

1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Granwald Mabedi DEF
3 Musawenkosi Ngwenya DEF
4 Austin Sibaya DEF
5 Sibusiso Fredericks DEF
6 Marco Lingard MID
7 Ryan Lehoko MID
8 Paul Kalaka MID
9 Arthur Serola ATT
10 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT
11 Granwald Masenia ATT

12 Jeffrey Tavlibudine GK
13 Shaun Ramulondi DEF
14 Valentine Methula ATT
15 Bheki Lingard ATT
16 Burton Felix MID

Set pieces

Free kick: Granwald Masenia
Penalty kick: Granwald Masenia

Conditional orders

Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Sibusiso Fredericks on position 1
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 2
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 3
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 4
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 5
60' always
Burton Felix on position 7
70' always
Valentine Methula on position 11
75' always
Bheki Lingard on position 10

Tactic will be called Roger Milla after legendary Cameroonian striker
(editado)

I like the tactic, it should work fine.
about the player on the 6: weak defender is imho too low for a defensive mid...I'd rather set Lingard on that position, as it will be important, to take the ball from their MIDs.
Maybe even a Defender with some PM could be a better alternative? do we have any possibilities there? Unfortunately, I don't know the skills of the players, but maybe that's an option?

And wht are Lehokos defensive skills? maybe he could play on the 6 and Burton on the 7?
(edit: I just noticed Lehokos skills earlier in this topic: no real alternative as player on the 6)

If both alternatives aren't possible, I'd rather go for Lingard than for Burton, hoping for a PM and a form-pop on thursday
(editado)

Lehoko has adequate defense, but also formidable technique so he would be more usefull on 7.
The only other option for defmid is Shaun Ramulondi, age: 20 , sum(56)

club: Vasco da Gorzyce, country: South Africa,
value: 4 770 012 Kč, wage: 60 751 Kč,
average (5) form, good (7) tactical discipline,
height: 190 cm, ·weight: 82.3663 kg , BMI: 22.82

Last update: 2012-10-05
good (7) Stamina tragic (0) Keeper
excellent (10) Pace very good (9) Defender
solid (8) Technique very good (9) Playmaker
very good (9) Passing weak (4) Striker

I'll take your advise and put Lingard on 6 and substitute Lehoko for Burton on 7..

hmmm Ramulondi is a nice alternative imho. He has 2 Def-Levels more and very good Playmaker. I'd probabely even go for him, despite his lower passing.
But maybe there are other opinions?

Yes he is nice alternative, I'm thinking about him also, but the stamina is a deal breaker for me. And I have to use 2 substitutions for strikers and 1 for Lehoko who has average stamina..

that's indeed a reason...

Burton after update..and now what? :-)

Burton Felix, age: 21

club: Los Pinguinos, country: South Africa,
value: 298 000 €, wage: 2 700 €,
outstanding form, formidable tactical discipline,
height: 176 cm, ·weight: 77.6582 kg
bookings:
solid stamina tragic keeper
excellent pace weak defender
very good technique formidable playmaker
outstanding passing poor striker

hmmm...nice progression. but for me the def skill is still too low for him to play on the 6

Agreed

Ok I'll rephrase the question, should I keep the tactic with Lingard at 6 and Burton Felix as a substitute for Lehoko or should I change it and put 2 offmids next to each other (Lehoko and Felix) and 1 defmid (Kalaka), considering the strenght of the opponent?

hmm may be I'll use both tactics this time:-)