After watching the game on Wednesday evening, I could not help but think that we are not playing our strongest side writes Karl Eldridge.
We played Jason Puncheon on the wing, for which he was for most of the game very ineffective until he moved into centre midfield. We decided to bring on Fraizer Campbell for Yaya Sanogo when he got injured. I know he scored but he was still not good enough.
Campbell had four more touches than Sanogo and played 70 minutes more than him. Delaney had another poor game and Hangeland must be a certain starter for league games now. This is the formation and team that I would play against Arsenal next weekend;
- Julian Speroni
- Joel Ward
- Brede Hangeland
- Scott Dann
- Pape Souare (Martin Kelly)
- Mile Jedinak (Joe Ledley)
- James McArthur
- Yannick Bolasie
- Jason Puncheon (Marouane Chamakh)
- Wilfried Zaha
- Yaya Sanogo (Dwight Gayle)
I have put the players in brackets to replace the starting eleven if they are injured.
Speroni has had yet another exceptional season. Every time we start to question whether he or Wayne Hennessey should start in goal, he puts up a world class performance. He was man of the match against Leicester City and quite rightly so.
However, there are some times this season I have questioned whether having Hennessey in goal would have got us a couple more points. Against Southampton in the FA Cup, Hennessey made a top draw save from Elia which Speroni would have not been able to get to due to being shorter. Speroni does wonderful things between the posts and he should stay there this season and maybe part of next, depending where we are.
Norwegian Brede Hangeland has put in two fantastic performances lately. He set up Joe Ledley for the winner against Leicester and he was fantastic at the back against Newcastle United. He is more accustomed to playing the Pardew way, whereas Delaney is still stuck in Warnock mode.
He made 17 more passes than Delaney on Wednesday and that is purely because every time Delaney gets the ball he plays it long, which whilst playing Sanogo is fine as he is a target
man, but when Campbell came on he carried on doing it. Hangeland is a much more composed footballer and if we are to adopt the passing style of play, then he needs to play alongside Scott Dann.
Joel Ward has been excellent since Pardew has moved him to the right. Kelly has also been exceptional, apart from one thing. Pace. When Newcastle did get the ball, they attempted more dribbles down the side Kelly was playing at because they know that if they get past him, he cannot catch them up.
Pape Souare might not be as defensively sound as Kelly, but he has got pace. Playing with pacey full backs is the way to play in this age. For example, Kyle Walker, Luke Shaw, Valencia, Callum Chambers, Danny Rose, Azpilicueta and Clichy to name a few.
What they lack in defensive qualities they make up for in being able to run back and put in last ditch tackles, which is why Souare will take over from Kelly in the coming weeks.
Joe Ledley and James McArthur have been the rocks in our midfield for over a month now and have built up an incredible partnership. Ledley sits back and makes fantastic tackles, whilst McArthur is the powerhouse of side and covers every blade of grass on the pitch.
Mile Jedinak is basically both players in one body. When he is fit, he will waltz into our starting line-up in place of Ledley and it will be like having an extra player on the pitch. I love Ledley but Jedinak is just that good.
Here comes to tricky bit. We have more attacking players at our club than we have ever had.
- Jason Puncheon
- Marouane Chamach
- Jordon Mutch
- Yannick Bolasie
- Wilfried Zaha
- Lee Chung-Yong
- Dwight Gayle
- Yaya Sanogo
- Glenn Murray
- Shola Ameobi
How do we pick four of them to go into our starting line up?
Wilf Zaha has been very good since Yannick Bolasie has been away at the African Cup Of Nations, but the second Bolasie stepped onto the Selhurst Park turf he provided an incredible assist for Campbell to get the equaliser.
One thing of late that has been happening is that we do not play wide enough to utilise our wingers. Puncheon always drifts into the middle of the pitch, so when Kelly or Ward have got the ball there is no wide option. When Bolasie came on he stayed on the wing and gave us the width option.
Puncheon would be much more suited in the centre attacking midfield position, but what about Chamakh? The Moroccan is an incredibly gifted footballer, but he needs to start shooting more. He needs to be able to produce the same amount of goals that Puncheon gets. It is all good being able to find the player, but finding the player is not always the best option.
So I have spoken about arguably our best four attacking players but we still have six others vying for a starting place. We signed Jordon Mutch from Queens Park Rangers, another centre attacking midfielder, but did we really need him?
Squad depth is very important, so yes, we did need him and at the age of 23 he still has to hit his prime. My worry is that that age he is unable to play half a game due to lacking fitness. How long does it take for a 23 year old to regain match fitness?
Yaya Sanogo has immediately been brought into our starting squad and that is because of the presence he brings to the team. Although he has not found the net in the league, I am sure he will come up good when he is called upon.
Dwight Gayle is the best finisher at the club and nine times out of ten you would put him down to score in a one on one situation, but the thing that he lacks is physical prowess. He is not as tall or as strong as Sanogo so he really needs to play in a team that plays with a second striker. I cannot really comment on either Shola Ameobi or Lee Chung-Yong as I have not seen much of them.
We can start to see the difficulties that Alan Pardew has when selecting his team, but it is not a bad problem to have. It is nice to know that we have strength in depth, maybe with the exception of a centre back, but if a player gets injured then it is good to know we have a sufficient back up player to take his place.
