No Cabaye for West Brom.

Is Abeid an attacking mid or more defensive?

 

More Box-to-Box, but seems tidy in defence.

 

Played DM against Forest, think they see his future there.

 

I've been impressed when I have seen him to be fair (admittedly not often) and I have no qualms with him or Vuckic starting.

If he is more of a DM i'd see him as Tiote's replacement rather than Cabaye's.

 

Smudger its about time we started attacking teams and have an urgency to win the game.

 

Playing people out of position is not the way to do that. Ben Arfa never has and never will be a centre midfielder.

 

Then why is he described both as a winger and an attacking midfielder?

He can pick passes out and attack the box, I think he'd be the most logical replacement for Cabaye with Tiote in as DM.

If Best is playing he is big and physical and can drop back into midfield to help out. Good opportunity for Ben Arfa to be given a run out IMO.

 

It'd be more attacking than normal seeing as Cabaye helps out more defensively, but i don't see why this wouldn't work in a sort of 4-3-1-2 formation with two wingers.

 

Ben Arfa playing as a second striker is completely different to him being the pin point of a 4-4-2 diamond. It requires more discipline than he has, more tracking back and frankly, is just wasting him. Play him in a free role, not this one.

 

That's not what a 4-3-1-2 is, which is 3 central midfielders and a man in the free role, used a lot in Italy.

 

Which is why i said, "a sort of 4-3-1-2". It's be more of a 4-4-2 with an advanced playmaker then

 

Which is a 4-4-2 diamond like on Fifa, which rarely works in real life.

 

I just think something like that is asking too much of Tiote, especially as he clearly isnt 100% fit. Take out Cabaye's defensive work and replace it with Ben Arfa's and we'd get overrun.

 

Except it isn't. What i'm trying to describe is this.

-------------------Krul----------------
Simpson----Perch-------Colo----Santon
Obertan----------Tiote-----------Jonas
------------------HBA-----------------
--------------Best----Ba--------------

So it's not a diamond...and it's a 4-3-1-2 variation.

 

Fair enough, although last year he managed it with Nolan being next to useless as a CM and more attacking. But seeing as he isn't 100% fit then i'll accept that it wouldn't work.

 

This, he impressed me against Swansea. Also Williamson wasn't match fit to play against Swansea so he won't be match fit to play against West Brom. He needs a couple of reserve games first. I'd go:

Krul
Simpson Perch Coloccini Santon
BenArfa Tiote Vuckic Gutierrez
Ba Best​

I'd like to see Abeid come on for a bit of a run out aswell.

 

True but Nolan had a bit of nous and could tackle now and then and track attacking players. He sat quite deep for a goalscoring CM and no way would Ben Arfa sit deep. Even if he did sit deep, he wouldnt do as well as Abeid would doing the same thing.

 

I get what you mean now I still think it wouldn't work right now though, it'd be Tiote against 2 CMs just after coming back from injury.

 

Alright then, i'll have to agree. Ben Arfa isn't meant to be a tackling midfielder (see him giving away penalty) and i guess we'll need someone else to help out, especially with the way we seem to be playing, trying to prevent goals over all out attack I'll be hoping more for something like this:

-------------------Krul-------------------
Simpson-----Perch----Colo---------Santon
Obertan-----Tiote-----Abeid--------Jonas
------------------HBA-------------------
------------------Ba---------------------

 

-------------------Krul----------------
Simpson----Perch-------Colo----Santon
Obertan----------Tiote-----------Jonas
------------------HBA-----------------
--------------Best----Ba--------------

This the perfect formation for Wednesday