No Luke, we can't always start 44+2, as soon as we're up against a decent 5 man mid we're overran, with 2 of our mid4 supposedly wide, there's far too much room in the middle of the park.
442 would mean Ade and Saha for me. Without substitutions Dona, I can only think you mean VdV would have to be one of the front 2, and for him to drop into MF to make up 5? We've tried that with little success, with our other personnel it just wouldn't work.
i did mean VDV...its a tricky one actually...he needs to be behind a front 2 but we cant afford that luxury i suppose.
they are all quite similar...and we probably go to and fro these formations in a single game..
In some ways this is always going to be a matter of opinion. We've got enough quality to beat half the teams in the PL with almost any combination of our best 20 players playing but we are always going to have a much tougher time against Man U/City/Arsenal/Chelsea. I don't rate footballers' ability to be flexible so I'd prefer we played essentially the same formation all the time. The key to me is getting Modric, Bale and Van der Vaart into their best positions. I don't think Modric is good enough defensively against the very best team so I want to play him in front of two holding players. He plays centrally, Bale plays wide and VdV can do whatever he wants. I think this is the only way of competing against the likes of City. Luke is right that we look great with two wingers against the poorer teams, but we are going to beat those anyway. Lennon should be seen as the cover for Bale.
In some ways this is always going to be a matter of opinion. We've got enough quality to beat half the teams in the PL with almost any combination of our best 20 players playing but we are always going to have a much tougher time against Man U/City/Arsenal/Chelsea. I don't rate footballers' ability to be flexible so I'd prefer we played essentially the same formation all the time. The key to me is getting Modric, Bale and Van der Vaart into their best positions. I don't think Modric is good enough defensively against the very best team so I want to play him in front of two holding players. He plays centrally, Bale plays wide and VdV can do whatever he wants. I think this is the only way of competing against the likes of City. Luke is right that we look great with two wingers against the poorer teams, but we are going to beat those anyway. Lennon should be seen as the cover for Bale.
Against a certain level of opposition or above, (factoring in home/away somehow), we need Sandro and Parker to fight for the ball in midfield. Below that, Lennon and Bale wide.