Thursday, February 04, 2010

Poor result

First Baros gets injured, then Kewell gets injured and now Jo is injured.........what is this some form of curse???? Probably just bad luck but still its frustrating. Of course with Nonda gone we are now somewhat short of strikers although Keita will be available this weekend after returning from the Africa Cup of Nations.

Having dispatched Denizli at the weekend 2-1 with goals from Arda and Jo the team was brought down to earth with a bump losing 2-1 to Antalya in the Cup with our old friend Necati scoring the second Antalya goal. It would be expected that we will win the return leg on the 10th but it means we will probably have to field a slightly stronger side than expected with the risk of injuries that brings.

Its still too early to say whether the new signings will turn out to be a success or not but I have a feeling that Rijkaard will be shuffling the pieces in midfield quite frequently as we seem to have an abundance of players for that area. Santos was hardly played at Spurs so its a bit difficult to assess him. The one player that does need to get a grip this half of the season is Elano, he has played some very good matches but has also disappeared in others. He needs to find some consistency and if he does a midfield of Arda, Elano, Keita and Sarp would be quite an effective one with the forwards taken from Kewell, Jo, Santos and Baros. In defence it looks like Neill, Servet, Hakan Balta and Ugur or Sabri when fit which has a solid look to it.

Overall it looks like the Superlig may be developing into a two horse race although Bursa are still lurking 4 points behind with a game in hand. Besiktas had a major dip in form and the other top 4 team from last season, Sivas will be lucky to survive this season with their current form. However iven that Ankaraspor are relegated and Denizli's horrible form it is going to be a fight for that third spot with Ankargucu, Kasimpasa, Manisa and Diyarbakir in the mix with Sivas.

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