Pompey v Liverpool

In this post I allow myself free rein to suggest what team I would put out against Liverpool on Saturday at Fratton Park.
I am assuming that Kranjcar and Hughes are still injured and not available for selection. The former would certainly feature in any squad and probably any team I selected. The latter would be used more tactically as a squad member. I am also assuming that the new signings are available.

I would first of all play 4-4-2 at home and for this Saturday play the team that finished strongly against Fulham last week.
James
Johnson Distin Pamarot Hreidarrson
Pennant Davis Basinas Mullins
Crouch Nugent

The only change that I have made is to take Traore off the left wing and bring on Basinas in the middle of the park. Traore was very quiet in the Fulham game and if I was going to use a wide left player I'd bring Belhadj back after his suspension. However I would use Pennant as my main outlet wide right and let Nugent play in the left channel as in his Preston days. Pamarot came on for Kaboul in the 78th minute and was a steadier influence. Basinas and Mullins would be encouraged to bring ball forward from defence.Nugent would be encouraged to give it everything he has got for the first hour.

I would keep Asmir Begovic as goalkeeper substitute. Kaboul and Wilson would be available as defensive substitutes as and if needed to replace any of back four. My midfield substitutes would be Belhadj, (Traore) and (Pele). My forward substitutes would be Geras and Utaka.

My 60 minute plan would be to replace one of the midfield trio with Belhadj and Geras to replace a tiring Nugent to make an attacking 4-4-2 if we needed to win the game. I think this would give the Liverpool a new set of problems to solve. If we needed to defend a lead I would bring on Belhadj to replace Nugent and play 4-5-1. The two wide players would provide the main outlets to turn defence into offence. Crouch would be left to work up front alone.

My 75 - 80 minute plan would depend on the state of play but I would have the option to replace Crouch up front with Geras in the 4-5-1 formation. If we had gone for the 4-4-2 formation I could freshen up the attack by bringing off the tired Crouch and sending on either Traore or the young Pele in the hole behind Geras as lone striker. This would again give the Liverpool defence some fresh problems to solve and hopefully not weaken our team.

I am not expecting too much from the game as I believe that Torres and Liverpool are hitting a bit of form at the moment. I would like to see Pompey continue in the form they showed against Villa and against Fulham in the second half. If we can hold Liverpool in the first half and score a goal on the break, we should be grateful for a point from this game.

I would have my eyes set on three victories and a draw out of the remaining eight home games, or 10 points. We have seven remaining away games and one win and three draws would give us another 6 points. This would make the total for the season 40 and hopefully this would keep us safe from relegation. A draw against any of the top four would be a real bonus home or away and there are one or two teams away that might be feeling the strain of the season even more than us and might be turned over if we can keep clean sheets and get our scoring boots on.

Play Up Pompey!