I don't think there are too many surprises when it comes to any teams preferred formation - though some do change it dependent on the opposition more regularly than others. I don't think there's much guesswork involved though, other than personnel.
Even our illustrious owner has said we are a 4 3 3 club. How many times have you heard owners state the formation?! Obviously the nuances are in there, but what we and opponents do know is that we are fairly rigid with it and that our wide players overall do minimal tracking back. It was ok when on the front foot, but this ain't going to happen very often in Championship. Fully expected us to be outnumbered in midfield, which is exactly what has happened. With the squad stretched, he is having to look ay other ways, ie Emmanuel who offers a bit more in way of defensive awareness.
I find this hilarious, after 3 defeats, it's now a formation issue, although we won the league playing this. 433 is fine, it's the most flexible formation and the most used. It's actually basically the same as a 442 as you often get one striker playing behind the other, which is effectively a 451 (variation of a 433). The tactics within the formation vary greatly game by game and that has a much larger effect on the game than the formation but a lot of people don't see that. We've lost 3 games, but we're without all our creativity and our 2 best players and the 2 lads who would've replaced those 2 as well. It's been a really tough start but we've got points on the board and there's an awful lot of mediocre sides in this league (pretty much all the bottom half).
We're outnumbered because we're missing Honeyman. He does the job of 2 and the defensive side of his game is arguably better than his assists. The press has been completely off, Doc's been doing it alone and leaving huge gaps. I don't think people realised how important Honeyman was to us defensively, he's absolutely incredible, he topped L1 for tackles for example. In the few games without Honeyman last season it was absolutely horrendous, we always looked toothless and never created much. Considering we're up a level, I'm pretty pleased with how it's gone overall. Losing Wilks too has been another hammer blow
What are you on about It’s not basically the same as a 442 with one striker behind the other Nothing ****ing like it Potter is wide on the left Williams wide on the right
That is another ridiculous assertion If the formation only works with honeyman in it then you change the formation It didn’t work with honeyman in it in the championship last time either We had good players for league one We could have played any bloody formation and won the league It remains to be seen if all some or none can make the step up
You can match up a 4 4 2 out of posession though by asking the wide players to drop back into midfield and pushing the attacking midfielder on. The point being that all formations are fluid. I totally agree that having better players than the opposition makes more of a difference to the outcome of any football match than formation. I also agree that we've missed Honeyman, and that his ability to run and tackle back probably masked some of Smallwood limitations last season.
I'm sure they are supposed to track back and stay with the fullback, whether in a 4 3 3 or as wingers in a 4 4 2. How much of that is formation and how much is just the defensive limitations of the players themselves?
I'm gonna see once West Ham vs Leicester finishes. The full game is now on ifollow. From the commentary and highlights, I don't think he got forward as much as Williams, but Robertson was better contained.
What I noticed in the QPR match was that it comes down to being very comfortable with ball and keeping it in your own space- they all seemed to be able to do it unfortunately at this level we have some players who are possibly a little lacking - not much but enough to surrender the ball more than the opposition. This does come down to quality levels . You can have an average player or two in a good team and get away with it , you can’t have a couple of poor players in an average team - it will catch up with you . Personally with our injured guys back I think we can grow into this , we have such a tough side. My concern is that if in twenty mins we had time to spot the dangerous winger then we need to adjust then - not a half hour too late - just saying
It’s very brave of mcann to think we can make them worry about us but in reality we can’t against the Fulham’s and qpr’s and if he continues to do it it’s stupidity Coyle got rinsed cos of no support So we shouldn’t have started the way we did away at Fulham Away at Northampton fine Fulham no
If you don't think they're pretty much the same then you need to pay more attention. The wingers are further forwards but they're still expected to track back. The biggest difference between Williams & Emmanuel was that Josh is defensively better, and he did a much better job of tracking back and limiting crosses. But to say it's nothing alike when 9/11 positions are the same is just stupid. The slight difference is the wingers but that's it. And that's what many people consider a 442 to be. There aren't many sides who play with a flat front 2.
It's too easy to that that in hindsight. But how are we meant to score? At least we looked more likely in the first half, in the 2nd it was damage limitation (that's fine as the game was gone) but Williams is far more dangerous as a winger than Josh. It's not like Grant's got an abundance of options at present. Regardless of all this talk, the goals came from 2 errors that should both have been dealt with.
Apart from starting Emmanuel though, his options are pretty limited currently. Personel is one thing, but if the Robinson threat was contained in the nominal 4 3 3 by bringing Emmanuel on, it wasn't down the the formation per se that he ran riot beforehand.
