Sheffield Wednesday & Brighton Tactical Masterplan

[Day]

Play the kids and set tackling to hard.

In all seriousness, on our road to promotion this season we are likely to meet either one or both of these inferior clubs along the way whilst also facing them in the league after a play off spot could possibly be already in the bag with our superior goal difference. 

Would you play the kids, possibly Rawson, Calero, maybe throw Zanzala a game along side the squad fillers or do you go for the full on hit em hard and ride the train of confidence?

Tricky one as the risk of injury, possible boots being left in to take one or two out. 

Real head scratcher this one don't you think?

[sage]

Unless someone is carrying knock or strain that could get worse, play our strongest team, keep winning, get a psychological advantage over our rivals.  

[Pearl Ram]

Not for me David, play the strongest team until we confirm 4th place enabling us to have a potential second leg at home in the play offs then you have the luxury of bringing in youngsters if you see fit. 

[Inglorius]

Inferior clubs tongue in cheek comment I guess

[RamLad1884]

Strongest team, get Johnson back to break some legs and possibly throw hughes in to see how he copes. Maybe give the bench strikers some game time but the rest of the team pretty much picks itself 

[needles]

Whichever way you go, if we go up it's the right way, and if we don't we got it wrong. For me, you keep the team together so far as possible and hope to avoid injuries. We're still in that same old position where a knock to Martin or Thorne and it's probably over.

[ramsbottom]

21 hours ago, David said:

Play the kids and set tackling to hard.

In all seriousness, on our road to promotion this season we are likely to meet either one or both of these inferior clubs along the way whilst also facing them in the league after a play off spot could possibly be already in the bag with our superior goal difference. 

Would you play the kids, possibly Rawson, Calero, maybe throw Zanzala a game along side the squad fillers or do you go for the full on hit em hard and ride the train of confidence?

Tricky one as the risk of injury, possible boots being left in to take one or two out. 

Real head scratcher this one don't you think?

I see what you're saying.  I can remember the Burley play off season and playing King Bill-eh's Preston on the last day of the season, we dicked 'em 3-1 and thought we were going to thrash them in the play offs.  What we didn't notice was that they were on auto-pilot for most of the game.  A week later, we got taught a lesson...

[Leicester Ram]

I think the pressure to finish 4th is too much for that. Also, beating Brighton and Wednesday would be a good mental victory for the players going into the play-off's. Equally they might just learn something that'll come in useful in the play off's if we lose those games.

If we can't move position in the table on the last day then I'd definitely give Hanson, Rawson, Calero, Buxton, Blackman, Bent etc a start. Give them some opportunity to prove they can do something.

I'd 100% give Hughes a start against Ipswich, regardless.

[Ashz09]

Lets do what Clement did. Swap the team around when doing decent. Worked well last time!

 

Imo we should keep the strongest team keep the momentum going.

[rynny]

20 minutes ago, Leicester Ram said:

I think the pressure to finish 4th is too much for that. Also, beating Brighton and Wednesday would be a good mental victory for the players going into the play-off's. Equally they might just learn something that'll come in useful in the play off's if we lose those games.

If we can't move position in the table on the last day then I'd definitely give Hanson, Rawson, Calero, Buxton, Blackman, Bent etc a start. Give them some opportunity to prove they can do something.

I'd 100% give Hughes a start against Ipswich, regardless.

Why? With our home and away record recently it would be better to play at home and gain an advantage than trying to overcome a potential deficit fro the away leg.

[MackworthRamIsGod]

My concern is, if we keep winning then we are in the territory of breaking records, we already haven't managed 4 straight wins this season, can we do it tomorrow night?

If we go into the playoffs unbeaten in x amount of games, Sod's law is we won't carry it on.

I almost hope for a defeat in the next few games so there isn't the unbeaten tag of x amount of wins on the bounce tag hanging over us.

[Leicester Ram]

1 hour ago, rynny said:

Why? With our home and away record recently it would be better to play at home and gain an advantage than trying to overcome a potential deficit fro the away leg.

Not worth the risk, it can absolutely kill a tie if you haven't got the right result at home and then have to go away and get a result.

Much prefer to go away and grind out a draw then have the deciding game on our home turf, playing at home in the second leg (to my mind) puts you in control of the tie. 

Think about our last play-off campaign, we scraped a decent result against Brighton away and then they had to come to PP and get a result. That completely ruined them. If you've got to chase a game away from home it's much worse.

[Hector was the best]

1 hour ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

My concern is, if we keep winning then we are in the territory of breaking records, we already haven't managed 4 straight wins this season, can we do it tomorrow night?

If we go into the playoffs unbeaten in x amount of games, Sod's law is we won't carry it on.

I almost hope for a defeat in the next few games so there isn't the unbeaten tag of x amount of wins on the bounce tag hanging over us.

Could be one tomorrow night, hope not but very possable

[VulcanRam]

34 minutes ago, Leicester Ram said:

Not worth the risk, it can absolutely kill a tie if you haven't got the right result at home and then have to go away and get a result.

Much prefer to go away and grind out a draw then have the deciding game on our home turf, playing at home in the second leg (to my mind) puts you in control of the tie. 

Think about our last play-off campaign, we scraped a decent result against Brighton away and then they had to come to PP and get a result. That completely ruined them. If you've got to chase a game away from home it's much worse.

Conversely, if you get a great result at home in the first leg it can equally kill the tie. If, for example, we go to Hull with a 4-0 lead, it ought to be tie over before the second leg even starts. If we went on to lose 5-0 we'd deserve to be out.

I don't really mind where the first leg is played. You have to play one at home, one away. Ultimately all that matters is that if you want to go up, you've got to be good enough over two games to beat the opposition.

 

[LesterRam]

I have had more thought on my bribery post, so we should contact the partners of both these clubs via twitter and start a rumour that all the players are having an affair with each others partners, I am very capable of photoshopping these in if required ( I know most people were very impressed with my star wars images of Paul Clement spotted with Carlo Ancelotti), please PM for details.

 

#theleicesterway

[toddy]

Always play your strongest side regardless............

[eddie]

1 hour ago, Leicester Ram said:

Not worth the risk, it can absolutely kill a tie if you haven't got the right result at home and then have to go away and get a result.

Much prefer to go away and grind out a draw then have the deciding game on our home turf, playing at home in the second leg (to my mind) puts you in control of the tie. 

Think about our last play-off campaign, we scraped a decent result against Brighton away and then they had to come to PP and get a result. That completely ruined them. If you've got to chase a game away from home it's much worse.

On the other hand, Leeds v Preston, Davros, "Mission accomplished" - how did that go?

[Leicester Ram]

24 minutes ago, VulcanRam said:

Conversely, if you get a great result at home in the first leg it can equally kill the tie. If, for example, we go to Hull with a 4-0 lead, it ought to be tie over before the second leg even starts. If we went on to lose 5-0 we'd deserve to be out.

I don't really mind where the first leg is played. You have to play one at home, one away. Ultimately all that matters is that if you want to go up, you've got to be good enough over two games to beat the opposition.

 

I agree with some of that to an extent, ultimately it's just two games of football. Wherever you play it, it's just blokes kicking a ball on a pitch.

BUT, there's a reason the higher placed teams get to play at home in the second leg. The first legs are almost always tense and low scoring, in fact you need to go back to 06/07 to find a semi final first leg in the championship that had over 4 goals https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Football_League_play-offs (Wolves 2-3 WBA)

You're very unlikely to be able to steam roll over an away team in the first leg, as they'll be focused on keeping the game tight. Much better to play the second leg at home.

[Leicester Ram]

2 minutes ago, eddie said:

On the other hand, Leeds v Preston, Davros, "Mission accomplished" - how did that go?

It obviously all depends on whether you can pull it out the bag, but of course in a way it was mission accomplished. That game basically turned the tie into a one off home game for Preston.

You can win it both ways, obviously, but I feel like playing the second game at home is advantageous.

[Seth's left foot]

Keep playing a strong team to build momentum but rotate some of the regular starters for the last 2-3 games to rest them up.

Some of the bench warmers need some minutes on the pitch incase they are needed in the play offs,Thorne is always liable to break down and Ince needs protecting.

'Arry will know what to do.