Do we have a natural left winger? I think we should go 4-4-2 with our best eleven available and in their correct positions ... Ollie won't of course, he doesn't know our best XI. When you're struggling to score and you concede regularly, you need to strike a balance between the two. Failing that you go for a complete shut out ( 0-0 ) (( Take a look at David Moyes and see what he is doing with West Ham )) and build from there. Freeman is believe it or not our 'luxury' player. Drop him and see if we can get a result by digging in. We really don't want to lose this one. That's where we are at this moment in time. Especially away from home. A draw in this game would not be a disaster. Keep a tight back six for this one and break with the advanced four. We really need to lose the Mackie/Washington fixation. They don't or can't score. Sylla and Smith can if we supply some width. Going 4-5-1, isn't as disastrous but we won't nick a win. A draw at best. 4-4-2 has been proven to be the best formation for getting consistent results in the Championship. please log in to view this image
Nines, you propose a very interesting and "out-of-box" formation. I fully agree with your objectives for the match strategy, but admit the idea to drop Freeman really suprised me and made me think. I do understand your logic which is very sensible. I will quietly add that if Ollie chose to do this, then it would probably create a minor meltdown with accusations of "tinkering" and a "tombola selction". However, as devil's advocate, the counter arguement to your cunning selection is "why drop Freeman, who possibly has the most flair, when we don't know who to put in the vaccant slot?" Overall, I am very pleasantly surprised that there are many more plausible team formations that I expected, and it will be interesting to see what Ollie will finally go for. Personally, I would start with 4-2-3-1 in order to have a robust defence with the objective of not conceding, and would change to a more offensive 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 in the second half wth the objective of snatching a win, counting on a goal in the last 15 minutes! But then, what do I know as I have never ever selected a real football team. Whatever we choose, COYR's!!!
To be quite honest I couldn't pick a team that I would be confident would get a result. We have a real problem up front, on the left wing and with goals from midfield.
Maybe Freeman will occupy the left wing berth? Or Bright - Samuel? Although I haven't seen enough of him to make any kind of informed judgement.
That is who I meant. Haven't seen him much either, just a few lateish subs. But he showed promising glimpses one time he was actually played in advanced role on the left side.
Bright-Samuel can play on the left wing Freeman is good, but not sure how effective he would be as a left winger. Manning has also played on the left I believe.
Good news. It is a tricky choice and I don't envy Ollie. But he does have all the inside info that we obviously do not have access to. ...but, it is his job.
