In defence of James, he knows a lot more about football than TWF but should know better than take the mick where it isn't needed
I'm not getting in an argument regarding Perry and James, saying that I think Perry is alright and I think James is a bellend. Half his posts are drunken( I presume) ramblings which make no sense.
Right, dealt with by PM, I think my edits make sense so we'll refer go to the football content of the thread. 442 Should we use it? Are our players any better suited to it than they are to the 4231?
That bold part is a complete myth. It's something the pundits came up with at the 2010 WC but there is no evidence to support it at all. More and more teams and managers are too scared to play 2 up front because they want to have the extra man in midfield and dictate possession. Just because teams like Germany did well with 4-5-1 at that WC it doesn't mean 4-4-2 will never be effective again. I find it hard to believe that any City fan can think 4-5-1 is good looking at how it's worked for us over the years: 2011-12: Barmby and his 4-2-3-1 means we dominate games but never score. 2010-11: Pearson's 4-4-2 turns the season around once we sign the strikers, but it's too late to achieve anything. 2009-10: 4-5-1 under Brown, pretty bad. 2008-09: 4-3-1-2 under Brown works well, he then changes to 4-5-1 and it goes tits up. 2007-08: Brown plays a proper 4-4-2 with two wingers and two strikers and we get promoted 2006-07: Parkinson's 4-5-1 is terrible. 2003-2006: Under Taylor we do very well indeed playing 4-4-2 for years. Does anyone see the trend there? We've always been **** at 4-5-1 and had our best success playing attacking football. No formation is simply 'good', 'bad', 'old' or 'new'. Anyone who says something like that and then starts going about how well they understand football is a bit silly really. If you play a 4-5-1 with a few attacking midfielders helping out and a striker who can hold it up then great, but if you have 2 completely defensive players in your midfield and the striker is a workhorse like Fryatt how do you expect to score? 4-4-2 has to be worth a try.
If I was picking the team for tonight I'd go for ---------------Mannone Rosenoir---Chester---Hobbs---Dawson ----------Evans---McKenna ---------------Brady ---King-------Fryatt-------McClean The 3 up front have to stay high up the pitch, which should prevent Pompey full-backs from getting forward too often. Evans & McKenna protecting the back 4, Brady free role & supplying the front 3. One of our problems with this is having Fryatt in isolated positions, and crowded out by the defence. But when we play it well we are capable of playing anyone off the park in this division which has been proved. (You can't leglislate for missing chances which we have been guilty of in lots of games) The alternative 4-4-2 with the same players (which Barmby wont use) would be: ---------------Mannone Rosenoir---Chester---Hobbs---Dawson King------Evans---McKenna---Brady ----------Fryatt-----McClean Top 2 work closer together so Fryatt not isolated, 2 wide men would be expected to track back and support full-backs in defence. Also Evans would need to get further forward into attacking positions when we attack. Both systems are capable of being succesful, its upto the manager to give clear instructions of what is expected and then for the players to perform to their best. We have not been helped recently with the continued use of an out of form Stewart. He should be rested tonight.
i'm with istplt on this one. i don't care what formation we play as long as it doesn't end in -1 which is the same as saying hull city nil. if 4-4-2 is no good, try 3-1-1-1-1-1-2 or anything else that ends in -2. i don't care what. or -3 or -4. and anyone who says 4-5-1 is the same as 4-3-3, no it isn't.
I'm pretty sure Parkinson usually played 442. I know at least once we ended up with Elliott starting as a striker and someone else filling in at left wing. In fact I know on at least one occassion he played Delaney at left wing because the fact that when I heard he'd done that I wasn't surprised is my go to for an example of how bad the selections where under Parkinson.
