Yep I agree that is our best midfield / strikers. I would play that too. Sessegnon ought to be used as an impact sub from the bench to play in a diamond formation behind Graham and Fletcher if we look like losing. Not sure when Cattermole is due back.
Mignolet Bardsley JOS Bramble Rose Cattermole N'Diaye Gardner Sessegnon Graham Fletcher Assuming N'Diaye is able to find his feet (No pun intended).
Looks good that VinM but there is a lack of width. Cannot see a £10 mil signing (AJ) being left on the bench even tho he has been a massive disappointment up to now.
That is the formation I would play if the 4-4-2 with Johnson and Larsson on the wing wasn't working. I'd sub Larsson and AJ and push on N'Daiye and Sessegnon in a diamond. No width I agree but the tactics may work in a game where width wasn't working. I'm assuming N'Daiye will be the player we hope he is.
I don't think anyone doubts Sess's technical ability, but he is clearly not right for our club and the way we play. He has been tried in an authodox midfield position, left wing, right wing, in the hole, as an authodox striker and a lone centre forward, but he has not been particularly successful in any of those positions for a sustained period of time. It's a real shame because he is a talented player, who has great ability on the ball and is a tricky customer when running at defences. It's his ability that makes him one of the first names on MON's team sheet every week, but the trouble is that the rest of the team can't play with him, so Sess often tries to do it all himself and regularly fails with his poor shooting or his lack of vision/refusal to pass to a team mate that so infuriates the fans. It would be foolish of us and the manager to think that we can change the team and build it around Sess, because the cost involved would be enormous, not to mention extremely time consuming. Sess is a play it on the ground footballer, not the chest it down from a defenders hoof with his back to goal player. So what does MON do? 1. Does he keep persisting with our current style of play in the hope that Sess will have a positive impact 1 in every 6 matches? or.... 2. Change the teams style of play to accommodate one individual? or... 3. Sell Sess at the end of the season and replace him with a player who fits into our style of play and is more effective on a regular basis? The truth is that something has to change. Someone has to be sacrificed to enable the team to play with more consistency. For me Sess is a luxury we just cannot afford when we have our backs against the wall.
That's our whole problem though isnt it. We will always be average until we change our thinking. If he was at Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea we would all be creaming over him. He is similar to players like Cazorla, Silva, Hazard etc.... We can be a hard working side that avoids relegation every year or we can develop into a very good premiership team capable of finishing in the top half and maybe one day winning something. MON needs to be given 5 years at least. He needs the fans support and the time to develop our team. Its all knee jerk reactions at the moment. We have not even seen Sess play with Fletcher and Graham together so we really don't know what the 3 of them are going to be like. IMO Johnson is a much bigger problem, Sess has done much more than Johnson this season, we spent 10m on a player we seem to carry every game. Maybe we should play a formation like this: .................Mig................... Gardner..JOS..Mangane..Rose ................Catts................. ........NDiaye...Sess............. Johnson...Graham.......Fletch Thats the sort of side an Arsenal or Chelsea would field. Sess in the middle of the park supported by a box to box midfielder and a ball winner. Fletcher does seem to like to run the channel but we would get loads of wide from Rose over lapping. You can replace Johnson with Larsson if he is not performing.
