Asunto: u21 friendlies

9/9 def/pace doesn't sound like it would be much use against the type of striker Greece is likely to have.
If we assume that they have better skills than ours, a 9/9 isn't likely to stop them.

That said, an extra player in defence can help even if it's just to pick up any loose balls.

If you go with the second striker, do you believe that he will be of use?
Will he be able to add to our chances to score?

Tough call.

Yes those points are exactly my dilemma :-)

Btw Marc 9/9 might be our best def next season :-)

Ouch :p

Anyway, good luck!

Maybe you have to take the risk? Our team is weaker, so a loss is acceptable and a draw or a win would be fantastic.

hmm 541 it is than..

The choosen one in attack will be 19 year old Serola. Substituted by another 19 year old Ledwaba and 20 year old Masenia:-)

Yes our defenders are "ouch" especially for next season, MIDs are also gonna be much weaker.. On the other hand in 2 seasons we might have one of the best strikers in sokker..Serola and Ledwaba are monsters for any nation, my guys Methula and Pitakathi would start today easilly, plus Jackzakk's Lingard..We will have to outscore everybody and play with 4 strikers and 2 defenders :-)

So against my friend Marek0090 and his Kypros squad we are playing mix of U19 + 4x U20.
That will mean a lot of new faces and premiers in NT. Among others due to a lack of defenders my striker Valentine Methula will start in defense:-)
Marek likes to play wingers and I think he will be prepared for my winger, so instead I'll try to surprise him with 3 attackers , where we have the most strenght in this age category. I'll try to create as much pressure with those 3 atts and very high defense. It would be very risky, but at least should be fun and I think he won't expect that.
I don't think I will bring any substitutions, despite the low stamina of most of our youngsters, because I don't think the subs would make that much difference..

Bold are first appearances

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

12 William Matshitse GK
13 Nasief Chelin MID
14 Pierre Pitakathi ATT
15 Bheki Lingard ATT
16 Shaun Ramulondi DEF
Set pieces
Free kick: not specified
Penalty kick: Arthur Serola
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Thabiso Ledwaba 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
(editado)
(editado)

I'm looking forward to the game :) Good luck!

Thanks BeGe.
Serola's owner wants me to play him with MID order, cause he is training technique now, so I'm gonna make an exception since it is a friendly and he will use some extra trainings for the future..
He has some MID skills so it shouldn't be that bad and I also want to see the difference, because now with the new ME and with that many back passes, it seems there is not that much of a difference between MID and ATT order anyway:-)

Such a pity about Sithole's form. I see his skills have continued to improve.

Sithole is a lost case, our best striker in tragic form for 2nd season in a row..I'm sure his form will improve immediatly after he hits 22y

Anyway not much to write about our match against Bulgaria, 541 and lots of praying is necessity:-)
Matsau will try to get through some lucky pass as a winger, Serola will be the chosen one as a lone striker for the first 45 mins., substituted in 2nd half by Ledwaba and Masenia.

This line up will try to perform the miracle:

Squad
1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Austin Sibaya DEF
3 Mfundo Jooste DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Fabian Olivier DEF
6 Shaun Sekano DEF
7 Jimmy Molefe MID
8 Petrus Hendricks MID
9 Arthur Serola ATT
10 Paul Kalaka MID
11 Zane Matsau MID

12 Jeffrey Tavlibudine GK
13 Ryan Lehoko MID
14 Granwald Masenia ATT
15 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT
16 Gerald Magalefa DEF
Set pieces
Free kick: not specified
Penalty kick: Arthur Serola
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka 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
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 6
45' always
Thabiso Ledwaba on position 9
70' always
Granwald Masenia on position 9

Tough match. Good luck. :)

Good luck!

Good luck mate!

Let's go for a draw! ;)
(editado)

Guys, with so many changes made in the new ME it is really hard to find what tactic is really working best these days, beacause the players behave so differently than before.
There has been increasing number of surprising results as it is harder for strikers to score a goal and better teams are more frequently loosing to outsiders, unfortunately we have not been lucky yet to get some nice result against a better team.
Recently there've been another updates in the ME so I really don't know what to expect and I have to try some new things, even though I hate to use NT matches especially in WCQ for experiments.

Moldova is recovering from a devastating draw against Korea that I posted here and which was even used in international forums as an example of the new ME troubles:-)

Iľl try classic 442 without wing (2x DEFMID,2x OFFMID), as the winger position is less and less usefull (and we dont even have a suitable player for it) in the new ME and we will play very high defense. It seems like the players are struggling against higher defenses and are passing the ball unnecessarily back and to the side instead of through ball to the strikers. We'll see how it goes..

Squad
1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Mfundo Jooste DEF
3 Fabian Olivier DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Shaun Sekano DEF
6 Jimmy Molefe MID
7 Petrus Hendricks MID
8 Zane Matsau MID
9 Arthur Serola ATT
10 Paul Kalaka MID
11 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT

12 Jeffrey Tavlibudine GK
13 Ryan Lehoko MID
14 Granwald Masenia ATT
15 Bonang Ludick ATT
16 Austin Sibaya DEF
Set pieces
Free kick: not specified
Penalty kick: Arthur Serola
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka 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
68' always
Granwald Masenia on position 11