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.
