Pienaar isn't really a passer, he's a slasher and a scorer. Playing Osman's free role is probably LD's best position. Plus the Ruskie will play wide right.
Osman is not even on the bench. Did he get hurt? I mean, after all, he scored a goal in their last game. You'd think he'd make the bench at least.
Donovan is going to have a much tougher time with De Jong and Barry (assuming he plays deeper than a traditional forward) than he would have had with Garrido or Zabaleta.
http://www.veetle.com/++++viewChannel.php?cid=4b51a18fc2b09 Remove the "+" signs, LD interview right now.
Re: Landon &Timmy - Everton/Man Citeh 1/16/10 Thanks, that's a great article. And if that's a "trend" that starts in top-level sports around the world, it would be an awesome thing.
Man City: Given, Zabaleta, Richards, Kompany, Garrido, Petrov, De Jong, Barry, Bellamy, Tevez, Santa Cruz. Subs: Taylor, Onuoha, Sylvinho, Wright-Phillips, Robinho, Mwaruwari, Boyata.
Soccernet has him up top with Saha in a 4-4-2, but they're not always the best with formations so we'll see.
FSC just showed the lineup as a " Christmas tree " formation, with LD and Cahill behind Saha. I can see this morphing into a 4-4-2, but I think the sole striker is more likely for Everton.
ESPN UK has Cahill behind Saha, Donovan on the right and Bilyaletdinov on the left with Fellaini and Pienaar in the middle. It makes the most sense to me.
Game about to start, love watching any top quality games, but it's always nice when they have a little extra spice. Lescott is still causing discussion and Moyes just flatly told a reporter that he didn't know if Donovan was giving them the creativity they were missing. She had suggested that he was providing a creative element while Arteta was out. To Moyes credit, he didn't outright diss Donovan, he commented on his pace and energy, and said he did well last week, but it still didn't come out as outright praise. He did put him the starting line up again. Should be a great match.
Even though Pienaar often plays centrally for South Africa (and he played there a lot for Ajax), I can't recall ever seeing him play there for Everton. I don't follow them that closely though so I might be wrong.