Agreed, but if you change to a central pair he's going to keep Huddlestone in to sit deeper so then has a choice of Diame or Livermore next to him. You could always play Diame behind the striker rather than starting Ramirez. It's all irrelevant anyway as I'm sure he'll stick with a 3-5-1-1, but in response to the effectiveness of Ben Arfa (and our other attacking midfielders) I do agree a back 4 would suit them better.
The problem is if we play Diame in a two in central midfield you limit his attacking because he has a lot more defensive duties.
Just to clarify for the people who can't read. I never said we played badly I just said we may need to change the formation or tactics to give us some more attacking threat because we seem to lack imagination and creativity at the moment. It isn't knee jerk and it isn't harsh. It is just an honest assessment of the situation. Us getting 2 points from the Arsenal and Liverpool games is great and they are difficult games to play. Some people just like to play devils advocate. It is glaringly obvious that there needs to be some minor tweaks because of the sheer amount of square balls, back passes, passing it around at the back, long balls up front to nobody, inability to change tact when something isn't working, not running at the defence, giving away possession too easily and stoping three quarters of the way up the pitch and then go backwards.
Completely agree with all of this OLM. For much of the first half after the giveaway goal we outplayed a very good team and with a bit of luck could have had at least two goals. The second half was a big disappointiment and started to go wrong IMO when we took out Macca who had been excellent with his runs up the middle and his through passes. Once we started to fall back into our own half and left Hernandez unsupported it was over and they could have scored 2-3. Aluko was a complete flop again (oh for Ince), the usually aggressive Elmo had his worst game of the season, and Diame was closed down by double teaming. Koeman knows what he's doing. Hopefully we'll be in much more of an attacking mode against the worst team in the division who look like a relegation certainty.
Lets not get carried away with ourselves, we have just played arsenal and liverpoo away taking a point from each then played the second placed team in the league who have conceded just 5 goals in the league all season. Soton are a very well organised team who had done their homework on us and had the quality players to snuff us out. How many times did diame get the ball and suddenly have three olayers on him. Yet we weren't outplayed by any stretch, and but for mr calamity would have tajen another point , brucie will put out a team to do the job at burnley, be it 352, 442, or 451
You sure on that Canada? Elmo was double teamed constantly mate. Thats why he couldnt get going. They'd done their homework on us. Elmo was closed down completely.
Against Burnley we want a win. We've had two so far, similar to some other teams further down like Leicester. So we need more.
4-4-2/4-2-3-1 Jakupovic Elmo Chester Davies Robertson Huddlestone Livermore Ben Arfa Diame Ramirez Hernandez Diame in a free role, with Ben Arfa and Ramirez cutting in, supporting Hernandez, allowing the full-backs to push on. Seems a good idea in principle...
Funnily enough I thought of this team during the second half of the Southampton as a "what if" with regards to the next game. It would tear Burnley a new one and then some. I'd tinker it slightly... ---------------------------Jak Rosenior--------Chester-------Davies--------Robertson ------------Livermore--------------Huddlestone Elmo---------------------Diame--------------------Brady -------------------------Hernandez
One daft goal, Brady to blame; it was a ''pass the buck' **** pass. Jak isn't the future, but he is an easy scapegoat. A lunatic would see we have done well in three big games. Defending from the front is the key and we lost that edge with Jelly's injury - play Brady as a striker - two up front, please.
That would be my team. Brady and Robertson combining on the left and Rosenior/Elmo on the right should cause a lot of problems for Burnley.
It was indeed a stupidly conceded goal with lots of blame to go around. Jak has been blamed, rightly so, for his very poor clearance, and for not simply booting it sidewards into touch. But surely that was the better option for Brady also in the first place. And why did Diame stand motionless as the clearance went past him instead of trying to prevent it going straight to Wanyama. But beyond that piece of mental madness (and the uncertainty on Longs header) I thought Jak had another solid game with some very key saves to keep it close. As far as clearances McGregors Lokeren madness was far worse and, in retrospect, cost us our place in the European playoffs. How many times have Prem GKs got away with similar clearances.? I see one almost every week. Unfortunately Jaks went straight back into his own net.
I like the look of that formation/line up. We need to be pushing further up field to put more pressure on goal and with Diame powering through the middle and Elmo and Brady, backed up by Rossy and Andy, we have speed and penetration on the wings. Burnley would be the right kind of team to try it out on. Lets go for it. Time to improve our goal differential in a significant way.
Steve Bruce and his selection/tactics team have got big problems with the injuries we have to key players. We have no 'second striker' so Hernandez is having to do it alone and he can't. From what I've seen of him he appears to be one of those opportunist strikers who, given the chance, will put the ball away. Trouble is he isn't getting any chances. He needs another striker to take some weight off him and a play-maker behind to create those opportunities. We have neither another striker nor a play-maker so what is Steve Bruce going to do? Ben Arfa shows flashes of class but he's a 'one foot' player so is limited. The Hudd is definitely 'off the boil' and Livermore has nobody to play to. Diame is having to 'go it alone' as we have nobody compatible to his skills to work with him. All credit to the team who are showing some brilliant passing routines between them but there is no end result and won't be until we get someone to put the ball in the net. Burnley are not too talented and have ex Tigers Dean Marney and 'George Porge' (who could not quite make it with us) in their team so it will be interesting to see what Steve and his team come up with. It would surely have to be an attacking formation of some sort but for the life of me I can't see what. Maybe, with such poor opposition he may give Aluko his chance as Burnley's sub-standard defence may be more susceptible to his ability. We should nick this one and one goal should be enough as we are capable of getting that even with our injuries.
This is the cause of out frustrations and it tells throughout the team - it's defending from the front, or not, which is more the case. Hernandez may as well be dropped as he is playing in a maze for what he has to offer the team. But why drop him? We have players - Brady, Elmo - who could be given instruction to play as an out and out striker, a foil to Hernandez. What about Aluko, is it wrong to ask him to step up the pitch and play as a striker? I have to admit to being a tad frustrated with Steve Bruce's resistance to change; predictable selection is making us very tame up front and open to defeats like yesterday.
