TFF chit chat 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 19th February

[morganb]

Winter Break is Coming - part 2.

FRIDAY 14TH FEBRUARY

Wolves 20:00 Leicester

The Friday Night Fixture is the Canidae derby and features Wolves against the Foxes at Molineux. Wolves lie in 9th place, 14 points behind Leicester City. Has Vardy rediscovered his scoring booties? Will the Leicester defence ever keep a cleansheet ever again?

SATURDAY 15TH FEBRUARY

Southampton 12:30 Burnley

Saturday’s early game sees Burnley travelling south to Deepest Darkest Hampshire to take on Southampton at St Mary’s. Both teams sit on 31 points and are currently well clear of the relegation zone. Ings is still on form and will be hoping for an England call up.

Norwich 17:30 Liverpool

Bottom v top in Saturday’s late game. Norwich came up as champions of the Championship but look destined for the drop. Liverpool are Premier League champions elect. Is Mane fit enough to start? Will Pukki score?

SUNDAY 16TH FEBRUARY

Aston Villa 14:00 Tottenham

Two games this Sunday, the first of which sees Aston Villa taking on Spurs at Villa Park. Villa are one place above the drop zone and Tottenham are one spot off the European places. Grealish is Villa’s main man. Spurs still without Kane.

Arsenal 16:30 Newcastle

Sunday’s late match is Arsenal against Newcastle. The Arteta Arsenal revival is yet to materialise, and both teams are sat on 31 points. Bruce has done a decent job with the Magpies. St Maximum is back from injury. Don’t forget Rose plays for Newcastle now.

MONDAY 17TH FEBRUARY

Chelsea 20:00 Man Utd

The Monday Night Fixture is probably the weekend's biggest game, featuring 4th v 8th. Chelsea already have a summer signing lined up but United made a couple in January in the shape of 'Frank' Bruno Fernandes and Odiham Igloo.

WEDNESDAY 19TH FEBRUARY

Man City 19:30 West Ham

Postponed from last weekend. And finally, Manchester City against West Ham. Man City have been poor this season by their high standards, but surely they will win against relegation threatened West Ham. In any other side Aguero would be guaranteed to start but our Pep is a team selecting enigma.

[brencarr]

Your word for today is canidae .... every day is a schoolday

[morganb]

Your word for today is canidae .... every day is a schoolday

I had an inkling it was something like that but had to Google it just to make sure!

[Darbyand]

Posted this on last week's thread but probably more pertinent here:

City heavy at the moment and was going to switch back to Liverpool for Norwich away this weekend. However, City now have two games between the latter and Liverpool's subsequent PL game - City play West Ham home and Leicester away. Do I stick to the plan or hope a) Liverpool have one eye on Madrid when they're playing Norwich and b) Guardiola has some consistency of selection forced on him by injuries. Pretty soon I think he's going to lose focus on the league.

[ventosus]

News conference... With Sadio Mane and James Milner having recovered from injury, Jurgen Klopp has no qualms about putting them straight back in at Carrow Road.

"Of course they are in contention," he said. "It looks like - and I hope it stays like this - apart from [Xherdan] Shaqiri, [Nathaniel] Clyne and [Paul] Glatzel, all players are in training.

"We have some good options. Hopefully it stays like this for the rest of the season."

Sterling out? if so Vardy or Mane? Vardy or Mane? Vardy or Mane? I think i need to lie down.

[murf]

Please don't go for Mane. If you do - and pass on Vardy tonight - that guarantees Mane misses out tomorrow.

[murf]

PS TFF recommend buying AOC this week and have put him in their predicted Liverpool line up. Mind you they have also previewed Wolves v leicester without using the term 'canidae'. Amateurs.

murf recommends selling AOC this week. He has been starting with Fabinho, Keita, Milner and Mane all out. They are now all fit and so I put him on my predicted bench. He could start if Klopp wants to give Mane another week off but, even then, Origi is also an option against the serinus canarias.

[murf]

Wolves
11Rui Patrício
32Dendoncker
16Coady
15Boly
2Doherty
8Neves
27Saïss
19Castro Otto
7Neto
18Jota
9Jiménez
Substitutes
10Castelo Podence
17Gibbs-White
21Ruddy
28João Moutinho
37Traoré
49Kilman
59Buur

Leicester
1Schmeichel
21Ricardo Pereira
6Evans
4Söyüncü
3Chilwell
20Choudhury
17Pérez
8Tielemans
10Maddison
15Barnes
9Vardy
Substitutes
2Justin
5Morgan
7Gray
11Albrighton
12Ward
14Iheanacho
26Praet

No Ndidi

[brencarr]

GOAL Wolves 1-0 Leicester (44 mins)

Matt Doherty nods the ball back across goal and Willy Boly directs the ball into the corner - not sure of 2nd KCs

The BBC had the answer .... Pedro Neto whips it to the back post, Matt Doherty nods it across goal and Willy Boly is there to head in from six yards out.

So it looks like .... Boly (Doherty, Neto)


Ok - so that's what I love about VAR .... nothing


Still 0-0

[murf]

0-0 Nobody (At, All)

[morganb]

Apparently there was a stud offside. He was disappointed that the goal was ruled out, but was chuffed to be called a stud.

[happyhoppy]

[Spinynorman]

Bound to happen I suppose after my recent mass clear out of Leicester defenders.

[ventosus]

Please don't go for Mane. If you do - and pass on Vardy tonight - that guarantees Mane misses out tomorrow.

you're safe - went for Vardy hmm 11 trannies left, can i still shoehorn Mane in though? I'm off for another lie down...

[Canaryfan]

Finally holding three Foxy defenders pays off. Too bad I'm miles behind my rivals having held on to three Foxy defenders!

[Eddie Elbows]

Absolute dog sh*t

[murf]

Absolute fox and wolf poo.

My high of 7 was outside the top 100k for this week

My low of 0 was even worse

My best team got 2 (and I'd forgotten I had him)

[LenH]

7 for me as well. Thrilling, not.

[Spinynorman]

High: 4

Low: 2

Best team: 2

[brencarr]

High 23

Low (and best team) 14

[Jamjack]

I was surprised and relieved that most opponents in my main super league have reversed out of Leicester heavy defences. It does however suggest they have more transfers than me not to have still kept one or two. Mmm

[Darbyand]

Southampton XI: McCarthy, Walker-Peters, Stephens, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Boufal, Ward-Prowse, Højbjerg, Armstrong, Long, Ings.

Burnley XI: Pope, Bardsley, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor, Hendrick, Westwood, Cork, McNeil, Wood, Rodriguez.

[murf]

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl makes four changes to the side that lost 4-0 at Liverpool in their last Premier League game on 1 February.

On-loan Tottenham defenders Kyle Walker, Peters make their debut, while Stuart Armstrong, Sofiane Boufal and Jannik Vestergaard also start. Moussa Djenepo, Oriol Romeu and Jan Bednarek drop to the bench, with Nathan Redmond absent altogether.

Southampton XIII: McCarthy, Walker, Peters, Vestergaard, Stephens, Bertrand, Ward, Prowse, Hojbjerg, Armstrong, Boufal, Long, Ings

Subs: Gunn, Adams, Djenepo, Romeu, Obafemi, Smallbone , Bednarek


Burnley boss Sean Dyche makes one change to the side that started the 0-0 draw with Arsenal on 2 February. Phil Bardsley comes in for the injured Matt Lowton, with new signing Josh Brownhill starting on the bench.

Burnley XI: Pope, Bardsley, Tarkowksi, Mee, Taylor, Hendrick, Westwood, Cork, McNeil, Wood, Rodriguez

Subs: Hart, Brownhill, Brady, Pieters, Lennon, Vydra, Long

[happyhoppy]

Looking forward to a JWP KWP combo today.

[morganb]

Soton 0-1 Burnley : Westwood direct from corner

[murf]

Just a tad windy. Someone in Ireland scored direct from a corner with wind assistance yesterday. Hopefully someone in my TFF teams was watching....

0-1 Westwood (Dennis?)

[Darbyand]

Ings took it off the defender's toe and smashed it in the corner so no KC.

[murf]

Wood off with hamstring injury.

Scan doesn't look good:

[murf]

Vydra gets Burnley's second.

According to TFF Live the KC is J.Hendrick's

[murf]

Naby Keita returns .... in place of Fabinho in the only change (cf to the last Premier League outing)

Sadio Mane and James Milner are included on the substitutes’ bench after recovering from respective injuries.

Liverpool XIII: Alisson, Alexander, Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Henderson, Keita, Oxlade, Chamberlain, Salah, Firmino.
Subs: Adrian, Fabinho, Lovren, Milner, Mane, Lallana, Origi.

Norwich unchaged
Norwich XI: Krul, Aarons, Zimmermann, Hanley, Byram, Tettey, Mclean, Rupp, Duda, Cantwell, Pukki.