We need to stop with the square pegs in round holes scenario though. We spent the whole of last season using Green on the right (where he actually did alright, to be fair to him) and Tonge on the left. No width! Hunt is not a natural winger. It's like Scum using Rooney wide left - he can do a job there, but he's no winger. If we start the season with Poleon and Hunt out wide I'll be very disappointed, we need a natural winger, not converted forwards and stop-term stop gaps.
Can't see Brown leaving Kiwi, but Pugh, Norris, & Tonge would seem reasonable to let go. If we played the diamond formation, other than Brown & possibly Thompson, who else do we have to just sit at the base of the midfield in a holding role? Given his attacking qualities, Diouf can certainly pick a pass. Would he be tough enough in the tackle to be able to play there? No, I don't think so either. How about Green? Maybe Austin, but he would need to get box to box, as I doubt he'd be able to play purely a holding role. Discuss.
The big striker will prove me right I feel sure he has got all the attributes awesome in the air and a good target man his ground work needs improving but then we didn,t pay 30m for him he came for nothing.He will score more than Billy and more than Becchio I will stake my reputation on it infact he will play for Scotland .Furthermore he is a sensible boy.I wish him nothing but luck !
Cheers 60. Your positivity knows no bounds. Symptamatic of something in the Beeston water - maybe a rare desease - BMDitus (dictionary definition - outbreak of unbounded happiness following arrival of footballus on the floorus)
Green will sit at the base of the diamond I think. Austin's robust but he's a box-to-box player, not a defensive midfielder. Murphy could potentially play there, as a deep playmaker? I hear he's pretty handy in the tackle too. The problem is, take Tonge out of the midfielders and do we have anyone that likes to operate a bit further forward? Maybe Murphy, but everyone else is either defensive-minded or box-to-box. Tonge's more of a forward thinking playmaker which is why I'd be tempted to keep him over Brown. That said, we could probably keep them both, at least for the season.
Diamonds are forever!! Or a girl's best friend!! Or the next signing. Formation? Kenny Byram Lees NewCB Warnock Austin Tonge Murphy Hunt McCormack Smith This will cause havoc as Hunt and McCormack can seamlessly interchange, both have good movement and pull defenders out wide, space for Smith. Tonge and Murphy are both capable of arriving late and adding a goal threat. Austin used as a terminator breaking up play will suit him nicely, he did that job well prior to his injury, misused a bit by Colin on his return. Other option to that as a potential starting eleven is Diouf for Smith with Hunt moving up top and Diouf in the hole. One thing for sure is this team gives us more movement rather than the static lot who watched the ball come down with ice on it last season. It's more fluid, and promotes a mentality of playing in triangles a la Gooners and Espana. Add a finisher to that mix and it looks very promusing indeed. Do we have the quality? Time will tell.
--------------Kenny Byram-----Lees----Peltier-----Warnock --------------Green --------Austin-------Murphy ------------McCormack -----------Hunt----Smith That's our starting 11 as things stand IMO.
I agree about Ross and Hunt interchanging in that striker / head of the diamond position. As things stand though I'm not sure whether I'd slot Green or Austin into the holding role so I pretty much agree with Simons setup, but can't decide which way around I'd have them. If BMD is wanting to try White off the striker, then he becomes an alternative for Hunt/Ross at the tip of the diamond and I'm seeing less and less places where Diouf will fit in. To be honest though, if we are looking to play some sleek passing football, I don't think Diouf works there. He did a job of holding the ball up and annoyingly (for me at least) constantly looking for a foul when we played hoofball. That would break the momentum up too much in a passing game. So unless he adapts to that, I can't see a role for him.
Don't like the diamond personally especially in the championship, it would work better in the prem but we're not there. Play a normal 4-4-2 or play a 4-5-1. I'd say we're looking at playing a 4-4-2. Brian has always used a very big squad at Reading and I think he likes the options of different types of players. I don't think we'll be signing another striker because McCormack scored 24 goals in a season or around that for Cardiff and has shown the same capability here. I'd imagine if Hunt was to play upfront he'd get around 10 goals a season and I just fancy Smith to be a really good goalscorer for us. Away from this, the two teams that last got promoted automatically didn't have a goalscorer and both there top scorers were midfielders. We need to distribute the goals a bit more and that'll happen if we're playing a more fluid game with a lot of movement. I reckon first game McCormack and Smith will start upfront together with probably Murphy and Austin as the two central midfielders
Good afternoon. Hopefully this season will see some new reputations form. Hopefully players who can be kept with us for the long haul. With the debate about who might get us the goals, I'm sure there were plenty of debates amongst Reading fans about who was going to score more than 20 goals prior to 2005/06 season after they had just bought Kevin Doyle, Shane Long and Noel Hunt. In the league for them that season, no player did end up scoring 20 goals or more. Their joint leading scorers had 18 each (Kitson and Doyle) Hunt scored 2. Still, they didn't do too badly... they ended up winning the league with a record 106 points. I don't see any reason why McCormack and Smith can't reach those sorts of heights. I still think we need to really get the midfield nailed before we worry about extra bodies up front. Saying that I do think we need an extra striker (for strength in depth) but if it's a choice in the budget of having a striker expecting to score 30 goals or 2 creative midfielders who compliment the players we already have, I know which would be my priority.
Completely agree re not being fond of the diamond, I really think McDermott's hand was forced as we had no quality wide players (or any of any kind, really). When we sign a couple he'd be mad not to use them because it's an ideal set up for Smith. I reckon 4-5-1 with McCormack in the midfield just off of Smith/Hunt
I was not impressed when I saw Mills recently not putting a shift in getting to much money in my opinion
I always thought that, but if you look at it... Burnley had one of those, whereas Cardiff and Hull had a top scorer with 9 goals
