dec 1 home vs manu - pl...dec 4 away to fulham - pl...dec 7 away to sunderland - pl
dec 12 home vs anji - europa...dec 15 away to lpooh - pl...dec 18 home vs wham - c1 cup
dec 22 away to saints - pl...dec 26 home to wba - pl
dec 29 home to stoke - pl...jan 1 away to manu - pl

10 matches in the space of 32 days...1 match every 3.2 days...8 premier league...1 each of europa and capital one cup

this month will be THE TEST on the depth of our squad...first up will be 3 matches in the space of 7 days... then 1 midweek match...1 weekend match and 1 weekday match and then 4 matches in 11 days

we should aim to get 3 or more points from our 2 matches vs manu and lpooh...against the rest we should aim for 11 points ( 3 wins and 2 draws) or better

the depth of most teams will be tested durng this month...

 
I think we have the depth in the squad to cope with this, but it depends which players and formations he plays for which specific games.

He should adopt a 4-4-2 formation for some games and maybe utilise Defoe and possibly Adebayor up front for some matches. Maybe play a 4-4-2 using one of them with Soldado so at least Soldado has a strike partner.

The other key thing is to make sure the defensive line is not so high against stronger opposition, or when you have Friedel in goal as opposed to Lhoris.


Stew.

Would be interesting on how AVB will rotate the squad against Fulham today and against sunderland on saturday...will he try out more combinations and formations...personally i liked using standard wingers as in the case against manu but maybe against fulhma we could revert back to inverted wingers again...we are in transition again aren't we...well once the transfer market opens and we have movements then we are in transition again and again and again...therefore only when we bought or sold not more than 2 players will we be non-transition

 
He has suggested in the media that he may use two strikers. Not sure how he's going to play this one, but if were using two of them, I would suggest one of them is Defoe.


Stew.

Played 5 matches with 3 more to go...3 wins 1 draw and 1 loss for 10 points from a possible 15...bummer that we did not win against manu and the loss to lpooh but at least we won against the 2 suppossedly weaker teams and southampton who would have overtaken us had we lost...we have wba and stoke at home and away to manu all in 7 days starting from 26 dec...we should aim for 7 points or better but i will take 1 win and 2 draws and build from that

refreshing to see us playing with 2 strikers but injuries has started to set in again...players such as vertonghen, townsend, sandro and lennon are vital when we need options or a change in strategy...sherwood made a bold move to introduce bentaleb and i believe he will introduce others too...i am all for it but i hope he will not be too gungho on this...a gamble is a gamble but a calculated gamble has less risk

given what had happened...we are only 4 points away from 4th at this stage...the road is still long and let's hope we start our chase now...coys...my christmas wish...allow me to watch the epl highlights on nowtv every time with a smile on my face for the rest of the season