Interesting to see Chelsea line up with Ivanovic starting at right back with no apparent injury to Bosignwa. Combine that with Bayern Munich's pursuit of Bosingwa over the summer (that was never really shouted down by anyone at Chelsea) and we might have a bargain defender in the making.
Zhirkov doesn't even make the bench as he recovers from a knee injury. It is unclear whether he will recover in time for the start of the season not and even if he does, whether he will start ahead of Malouda.
Another curious selection on the other side of the ball is Nani getting the start over Valencia with no injury reported. (and Nani just scored as if to underscore his spot in the line-up - and he made the goal himself - definitely food for thought) It also appears that Darren Fletcher will be taking Paul Scholes' old spot with Park getting the nod on the left.
At the back, O'Shea is subbing for GNev/Rafael as they are both injured and Evans is subbing in for Vidic. Foster received the call in net over Kuszczak which (I assume) makes him the presumptive favorite for Week 1 but of course we'll disect every statement from Fergie this week to ensure you have the latest and greatest news.
Bananas Foster would have to look incredibly shaky throughout the game, which will make it ever harder to tell who Fergie is going to go with in goal. Nani looked good and then got hurt. It also doesn't look like Man U are going to run everything through Rooney, which is what I figured was the new plan post-CRon. Looks like they're going more for a team/depth/form sort of setup with no true focal points and maybe no set best 11, which is a double-edged risk/opportunity sword for fantasy purposes.
ReplyDeleteChelsea's pecking order looks fairly stable(at least until Zhirkov and JCole are back in the picture), but of course they're all pretty expensive, so that doesn't help me a ton.
Hi guys - The TV line ups had it wrong...in the end Nani played left wing (from where he scored), Park right wing. I still think Valencia will start this weekend.
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