Come Wednesday am sure all of our minds will be auto tuned to the Big Game that night. I know I won’t be able to keep my mind on work that day. I’ll probably be checking BFW and other footballing sites for updates and general discussions.

I was looking at the list of players on yellow cards last night, and well even though guess most of us know we have 7 players who are one yellow away from suspension, it was quite shocking to see the list in this particular order :

Alaba

Badstuber

Boateng

Lahm

Gustavo

Kroos

Meullar

The first four in order looking familiar?? Yes they form our most successful backline in some 2-3 years now starting from LB to RB. With our first line of defence in Goose also a yellow away from suspension , we are literally in danger of missing out on our entire defense minus Neuer for the Finals. DVB and Breno are unavailable and we are playing with 2 recognized CB s for the last 2-3 months now.

Now with this in the back of Jupp’s and the player’s mind one would expect them to play with caution. But will they play with “ too much caution” ? Will they drop that toughness they so well showed against Madrid in the 1st leg. Will they think twice before lunging in? Am sure this is going to play in their mind as they see Ozil, Ronaldo, Benzama and others charging towards them. We have a young backline and most want to play in the UCL finals. Who wouldn’t? It’s a dream for every footballer and to play one in your home ground is beyond anything. So does it mean we will not see Gustavo sliding around and Lahm and Alaba going less forward for the fear of getting caught out?

Lets analyze our backups lest we have suspensions. We have Contento ( no experience ), Rafinha ( great going forward and hates to defend) and Tymo ( a DM who can play CB but sucks at it). So basically zero on quality backups. Now we can trust Lahm not to get booked. He generally doesn’t and keeps it clean. Our problem is Boateng and Goose. Both love their yellows, goose more the lover.

Will it help if we rest goose and play Tymo instead to protect atleast one player who can play CB? Or go with our best 5 defensive line to kick Madrid out and not worry about the Final? Its going to be a tough decision. I would go with our best defense and not worry about the finals for now. We need our best defensive line against RM. They showed last Saturday they can beat arguably the best club side in the world currently. We should be giving it out our best as well and not worry about things on the 19th of May. We could end up loosing our entire back line for the finals. It’s very stupid of UEFA to change the booking rule for this season. Teams should be allowed to get rid of their Yellows before the Semi’s.

SO give it all you got lads against RM and hope we have our backline intact for the finals.