Nuggets I think your account has been hacked. Is that you Marcus? Do you think our midfield has 40 goals in it like Norwich’s last season? All those big names you mentioned don’t have just one goalscorer. Mane and Salah at Liverpool alongside Firmino (and the rest!) Sterling and Mahrez and Silva and Silva and De Bruyne along with Jesus Aguero. Man City and Liverpool have more goal threat in their defensive line than we have in the squad. Most ridiculous of all is to mention Barcelona with Messi and Suarez together (and now Griezmann). The problem here is that it’s fine to have one out and out striker, one number 9. But in all these cases there’s a swarm of other attacking players in support and weighing in with goals. Full backs overlapping. We’re lightyears away from this at the moment.
If Marcus Evans hacked my account, I highly doubt he’d be criticising the state of the defence and our lack of options up front. Regardless, you are not addressing my point. My point is that most successful teams play a formation with one recognised centre forward. You asked me to provide examples of this being successful in football. Norwich City are a prime example, how many goals their midfielders scored compared to ours is redundant to that debate. I then pointed to the fact that successful sides in football do not play with two recognised strikers up front anymore. Top sides, as I’m sure you know, typically play with a 4-3-3 going forwards and a 4-2-3-1 when defending. Mane and Salah do not usually play as centre forwards, Firmino does. Sterling, Sane, and Silva are not centre forwards, Aguero and Jesus are - and if you think Jesus and Aguero play in the same Man City team outside of marches against lower league teams, then you clearly don’t watch City play. Messi and Saurez do not play in a two up front formation, but you presumably know this. The point is that 4-4-2 is rarely used anymore and typically doesn’t make you successful. We won’t get promoted playing two centre forwards because we’ve only got one good centre forward. If you want to play two strikers up front in today’s football, you typically go 5-3-2, but we would struggle to get promoted playing 5-3-2, as we do not have a strong enough defence or good enough wing-backs. And you know this. If we had three Luke Wolfendens, our best talent in years according to you, then we’d stand a good chance. What we do have is an abundance of attacking midfielders and wingers, such as Judge, Edwards, Huws, Bishop, Nolan, and, at a push, Dozzell. Not all of them would do well in League One, but I would place more faith in that collection of players compared to any other outfield position. Wouldn’t you? Now looking at the squad we have now - what would be your ideal starting eleven against Burton, Hampy?
Some good players in that side, Big Al, but you’d like to think that we’d get top two ahead of both Colchester and Gillingham. Shame that we don’t a) play Spurs U23 at their place and b) that their place isn’t at the new stadium. I’m watching Bengals play Rams at Wembley, as part of the NFL London games, and really hoped that match was at the new Spurs ground.
Well none of those sides play with one centre forward, if we’re being particular, but instead with a number 9 striker. Centre forwards sit a little deeper. I am addressing the point - no successful side has only one source of goals and it’s pretty irrelevant to the point which starting position those goal scorers take up. In any case, the midfielders with the exception of Edwards don’t weigh in with enough goals, aren’t capable of slipping through balls in or getting crosses over so when we get to the final third we need that player to sit off Norwood and get 15-20 goals themselves. Harrison would have been ideal for that role. Or Sears and Edwards in a 4-3-3 would work - but Lambert doesn’t like Edwards and Sears is injured. In short, we needed to bring in a couple more attackers and we’ve actually let one go instead. If we think Norwood is going to be enough we’re kidding ourselves. If he gets injured we’ll be rapidly heading for the trapdoor. Regarding midfielders, what we have there is six or seven good options for one position and a good right winger who the manager doesn’t favour. We don’t have a good CDM. In goal we’re fine and in centre back we’ll be okay if Woolfy and Nsiala form a partnership. Full back is a massive concern. Out wide is a massive concern. Really we are short in five or six positions. Absolutely shocking. We are depending on a big drop in quality of opposition and I think we are in trouble before we’ve even kicked a ball.
Leaving aside the tortured debate on the specifics of what defines a centre forward, I think we all agree that there has been a serious lack of investment in the playing squad over the past several years. I think we all agree that the club has been in serious decline on Evans’ watch. Now I agree with you that there are concerns in this squad, pretty much in all the positions you outlined. However, if the owner is not willing to bankroll a massive overhaul of players, and if the manager believes we’ve got a good enough squad as it stands, then we are not going to see all those problem positions solved. In an ideal world, we’d have a well-stocked, high-quality side that would canter to the title. But we don’t, and if we had then we would not have been relegated in the first place. We are in League One because we were nowhere near good enough in the Championship, due in part to an absolute mess of a transfer window last summer. Now you say that if we play one up top, we’ll be relegated. I’m assuming that’s your notorious dry wit and not an honest opinion, so I’ll leave that aside. You favour a system with two strikers. So again, I ask you from the current squad, who would be your two strikers starting against Burton? I’d love to play a 3-5-2 system, but we don’t appear to have the money, managerial desire, or the players to make that work. We can debate ideal signings and ideal formations, but we need to play to our strengths and our main strength, in my opinion, is a stock of talented attacking midfielders that would be the envy of most teams in this division. Players like Judge and Huws, when fit, are arguably too good for League One. Players like Nolan and Edwards have been here and done it before in League One. Players like Lankester and Dozzell look like talented players with potential. Therefore, I think a 4-2-3-1 - accommodating the likes of Judge, Nolan, Bishop, Huws, Edwards, Lankester, and Norwood - would produce the best results. We would have to trust that those attacking players would start adding goals to their game against a lower standard of opposition, with more confidence in the team, and playing in an actual system. If Norwood does get injured, I agree we might be in trouble, but that’s when Jackson and Sears (if fit at the time) would have to step up. Letting Harrison go looks like a bad move, as I said at the time. How you would make a 3-5-2 formation work from this squad would intrigue me. How you’d make 4-4-2 work, when you’re dropping an talented attacking midfielder to shoehorn in someone like Jackson, would also intrigue me. For example, if we brought in two great strikers and sold Judge, Edwards, and Lankester to fund that - then I’d be saying we’d have to bite the bullet and play 4-4-2 and hope we can outscore the opposition every match. But that doesn’t look like happening.
There's an awful lot of assumptions being bandied around, " Judge is too good for this league " being one of them, with all due respect we know nothing of the sort, Lankester, Dozzell, Bishop, being " talented players and will do well in Lg1," well they're not kids anymore and the lower league is an unforgiving place which might prove too physical for them, naturally we hope not. Norwood will be stepping up a grade, Skues and Chambers not getting any younger so make no mistake this is going to be a testing season, Edwards, Jackson and Co.must hit the ground running because it doesn't look like our useless owner is going to shell out on some badly needed quality, this is not a make or break season but its bloody close.
I wouldn't be able to make a 3-5-2 or a 4-4-2 or any other formation work from this squad. Up front we need for Jackson in and for him to step up. To play Edwards regularly to chip in with some goals. For Sears to make an impact when he returns. Probably Ben Morris and Jack Lankester featuring regularly. Donacien / Woolfy / Nsiala / Kenlock is the only back four combination I can see working, but that won't be happening. Midfield we have something like 8 options for one position but no good ones for CDM and a lack of width. I really expected us to be signing at least 3 or 4 to give us a chance. We need some of those attacking midfielders to play in the other three midfield roles, to play up front and also to rotate. The only way I can see us in the play offs this season is if Huws, El Mizouni, Jackson or some others come in and really set it alight. Norwood alone isn't going to be enough and if we continue where we left off last season he's not going to be getting bags of goals. I think we probably will plod on with 4-5-1. I think the likes of Edwards and Donacien will continue to be frozen out. I think Lambert will be gone by November. Finally, it's time to stop blaming last summer's transfer window. There has been no shortage of terrible decision making since Lambert came in.
We had a debate during last season about the merits of playing Edwards as a 2nd forward. That would allow for a second striker without sacrificing players where we are best stocked. But with what we have 451 Probably is the most suitable formation without the constant issue we've had of playing people out of there usual position.
Town are getting battered 15 minutes in vs Fortuna. But Huws back in action and Woolfy and Donacien in the reckoning a major plus. Edwards, Nolan and Judge injuries a concern in terms of their preparation and hitting the ground running.
I think we’ll be alright. Never got totally humped last season and this is a much Lower league in technical terms (championship is in top 10 toughest leagues in Europe). Manager knows what to do, has done it before, we’ve signed a goal scorer, midfield is brimming with attackers. Defence is a worry though granted. So over all I think we’ll be alright.
