Just hope that Mears can go and Zubar isnt out there. All the projected lineups Ive seen have M'Bami, Cheyrou, and Cana out there. Gerets is going very defensive.
I think he has too and try for a goal late in the match. Away goals are what L'OM needs. Hostile environment, cold weather, rabid fans, cold weather. You know that home is the place to be
Well Shakhtar clearly deserved to win the match. I though Valbuena should have started in place of MBami instead of having Valbuena come on for him late. The defense was so poor. Mandanda bailed them out a few time. Mears is mediocre. When you have a poor defense and youre missing 4 offensive players (Brandao, Wiltord, Ben Arfa, Ziani) I didnt expect to win but was hoping for an away goal at least. If Niang got that goal he barely missed the tone would have changed. They started 3 defensive mids and still got outplayed significantly. Shakhtar has huge advantage in that they are out of their title race so they can focus solely on UEFA and OM thats not the case.
I thought that Shakhtar has a very potent offense. However, I didn't think their d was that great. The wood work denied Niang from scoring a vital away goal. Score two goals & we are back in it. The trick will be not allowing Shakhtar a goal Man, now I wish Cisse was an option. Samassa had a golden opportunity to feed Valabuena, but made the wrong decision & sent a bad pass to Kone. Decisions like that could effect title contention
I would get rid of Zenden, Samassa and Wiltord in June and sell Cisse and hopefully no other offensive players will depart and with a full season of Brandao then hopefully they have a good chance next year to get out of the group stage in the CL. Brandao + Niang + Kone + Valbuena + Ziani + Ben Arfa + ??? + ???? + ??? for next year on offense.
I thought Zenden has been playing well this season. His best match was vs. PSG, but he looked like the young stud he was at Barca
Zenden can still play no doubt but he's 32 and has one of the largest salaries on the team so signing him to an entension doesnt make much sense unless he's willing to take less money to stay. He's a luxury to have and not a guy you have to keep at all costs.