TFF chit chat 8th, 9th and 10th February

[murf]

Luis Diaz is handed his full Liverpool debut for tonight’s Premier League clash with Leicester City at Anfield, joining Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota in attack.
Thiago Alcantara returns in midfield, but Jordan Henderson misses out with a back issue.
Mohamed Salah is named on the bench following Africa Cup of Nations duty.

Alisson, Alexander, Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Jones, Thiago, Diaz, Jota, Firmino
Subs: Kelleher, Konate, Milner, Keita, Salah, Oxlade, Chamberlain, Minamino, Tsimikas, Elliott.

[murf]

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers makes five changes to the side that were humiliated 4-1 by Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup on Sunday.
Kasper Schmeichel, Boubakary Soumare, Marc Albrighton, Dewsbury-Hall and Patson Daka all start.
Danny Ward, Caglar Soyuncu, his umlauts, Youri Tielemans, Harvey Barnes and Kelechi Iheanacho drop out.

Jamie Vardy is not involved at all.
Leicester XI: Schmeichel, Justin, Amartey, Ndidi, Thomas, Albrighton, Soumare, Lookman, Maddison, Dewsbury-Hall, Daka.

A few returning Wolves players as they make five changes from their FA Cup defeat by Norwich.
Francisco Trincao returns from Covid and Romain Saiss is back after the Africa Cup of Nations.
Jose Sa, Marcal and Raul Jimenez also come back into the team. Joao Moutinho is out.
Jonny Castro Otto is on the bench, having not played since last March because of knee problems.
Hwang Hee-chan is also on the bench following an injury.

Wolves: Sa, Marcal, Coady, Kilman, Saiss, Semedo, Dendoncker, Neves, Podence, Trincao, Jimenez.
Subs: Ruddy, Hoever, Ait-Nouri, Silva, Jonny, Chiquinho, Toti, Hwang, Cundle

Arsenal welcome back Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka from suspension and Cedric Soares from injury.
The trio replace Albert Sambi Lokonga, Emile Smith Rowe and Rob Holding, who are all on the bench.
Mohamed Elneny is on the bench after losing Sunday's Africa Cup of Nations final with Egypt.

Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tierney, White, Soares, Gabriel, Partey, Xhaka, Martinelli, Saka, Odegaard, Lacazette.
Subs: Okonkwo, Smith, Rowe, Holding, Pepe, Tavares, Lokonga, Elneny, Nketiah, Awe .

[raoul]

to Salah or not to Salah ...

Bench, but I bet he plays 30 minutes, even if Liverpool are cruising. Just to get the Afcon loss out of his mind.

I have Bilva, and he is the one definitely making way for Mo - so I lose Bilva away to Norwich (subject to Pep roulette of course).

Stick for now, or twist?

[Joey Navinsky]

Salah on the bench makes things bit tricky. Think I'll leave him for tonight's game and squeeze one more game out of Fernandes before I ditch him

[murf]

to Salah or not to Salah ...

Bench, but I bet he plays 30 minutes, even if Liverpool are cruising. Just to get the Afcon loss out of his mind.

I have Bilva, and he is the one definitely making way for Mo - so I lose Bilva away to Norwich (subject to Pep roulette of course).

Stick for now, or twist?

Where he was coming in for someone who plays earlier at the weekend I have stuck.
Where he was coming for Chelsea I have done it.

[Joey Navinsky]

to Salah or not to Salah ...

Bench, but I bet he plays 30 minutes, even if Liverpool are cruising. Just to get the Afcon loss out of his mind.

I have Bilva, and he is the one definitely making way for Mo - so I lose Bilva away to Norwich (subject to Pep roulette of course).

Stick for now, or twist?

Where he was coming in for someone who plays earlier at the weekend I have stuck.
Where he was coming for Chelsea I have done it.

That was my logic as well - I need to ditch Fernandes or Mahrez to get Salah in - as they both play before Liverpool's next game, I'm stepping away from the transfer button (although there's still 40 minutes until kick-off, during which time I could change my mind!).

[raoul]

to Salah or not to Salah ...

Bench, but I bet he plays 30 minutes, even if Liverpool are cruising. Just to get the Afcon loss out of his mind.

I have Bilva, and he is the one definitely making way for Mo - so I lose Bilva away to Norwich (subject to Pep roulette of course).

Stick for now, or twist?

Where he was coming in for someone who plays earlier at the weekend I have stuck.
Where he was coming for Chelsea I have done it.

Bilva seems undroppable so will surely play, but with CL coming up he might get a rest, and also his goals dried up once KdB was back.

If I am Klopp I am thinking of the roar when Salah comes on after an hour, gets his head back into the Prem League and his positivity up. Hence I think he will come on whatever happens.

And Leicester are falling apart.

Hmm. Decision needed.

[raoul]

decision made.

On another front, just realised my block Wolves team has Ramsey. Which is nice. Clean sheet tonight would make for a good week!

[LenH]

I'm waiting on Salah for god knows who till the weekend so probably best or hope you did the opposite of me!

[Darbyand]

Gabriel (Lacazette)
Jota (VVD)

Wolves goal would be nice.

[murf]

to Salah or not to Salah ...

Bench, but I bet he plays 30 minutes, even if Liverpool are cruising. Just to get the Afcon loss out of his mind.

I have Bilva, and he is the one definitely making way for Mo - so I lose Bilva away to Norwich (subject to Pep roulette of course).

Stick for now, or twist?

Mo on for the predicted 30 minutes.

Bobby F off.

[murf]

2 Liverpool goals:

Jota (the CBs)

[Spinynorman]

High: 63

Low: 21

Best team: 50

[murf]

High:16 35 65

Low: 3 12 51

Best team: 16 (back into top 1k) 35 (back outside top 1k) 64 (back into top 1k)

[Jamjack]

65-72
71 best …and maybe I’m not ditching Jota after all

[ChaffMyJive]

Took quite a hefty sofa to hide behind for the last 30 minutes last night. I seem to have gotten myself into the unfortunate position of bringing in Mahrez and KDB in the meantime who are difficult to justify dropping. If only I’d kept hold of Lukaku I wouldn’t have this dilemma.

[Darbyand]

65-72
71 best …and maybe I’m not ditching Jota after all

I don't think I can do it now either.

[Jamjack]

65-72
71 best …and maybe I’m not ditching Jota after all

I don't think I can do it now either.

£4.7m and even when he doesn’t look great he still throws in fairly regular 10+ hauls. Struggling to come up with better ideas to improve my position.