'Technical Difficulties' conspired to prevent me from actually publicly tipping going for 5 Inter players last night and, but for the Bale-led comeback, the tip almost came off.
Tonight has a similar feel to it and I'll be looking for 3 or 4 Napoli players for the Big Game. Even picking 1 or 2 Liverpool players will be tough as two of the stand out point scorers, Gerrard and Johnson, won't be playing. Konchesky and Skrtel are reliable if unspectacular scorers and the three central midfielders, Poulsen, Lucas and Meireles, often score well. Meireles was the top scorer in the Merseyside derby on Sunday, even with a yellow card, pipping Picklive legend Mikel Arteta. Poulsen had a big match against Man Utd and Lucas wasn't far behind against Everton.
However, Hodgson has left Meireles and Lucas behind so we're left with only Poulsen, Konchesky and Skrtel, preferably in that order. Otherwise it may be worth taking a punt on one of the younger Liverpool players; Jay Spearing scored a huge 92 points against Steaua Bucharest and that was without any goals or assists.
Napoli had 55% possession away to Steaua Bucharest (Liverpool had 52% at home to Steaua) and 57% at home to FC Utrecht (Liverpool got only 42% away to Utrecht) so if they can get anywhere near that then they should dominate the points scoring.
Napoli usually play a 3-4-2-1 formation. Cannavaro, the Captain, plays at the centre of the back three and should be considered although he is a bit of a card risk. Hamsik is one of the stars and will surely on a lot of people's lists but he is often subbed with 20ish minutes to go. An interesting alternative could be Lavezzi who players behind Cavani and alongside Hamsik. But at least one spot should go to
Pazienza, Dossena, Gargano or Maggio who make up the midfield four. I've a hunch that those four could decide it tonight even if it's on who gets subbed first/last.
Good luck!
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