How about playing Brady Snodgrass Ince, a 3 man attacking trio behind a new striker like Rhodes or whoever. Snodgrass could be a great no.10 and ince & brady on either wing would be lethal.
then have, if we hold on to them, diame & Huddlestone as the 2 man midfield.
4-2-3-1
Everyone says pick a formation to suit your team, well if we are selling ndoye, hernandez & jela, we only really need to sign 1 big/expensive striker as our main guy and then maybe buy a young, up & coming striker from the lower leagues or get a loan.
for example..
___________Rhodes
Brady_____Snodgrass______Ince
______Diame______Thudd
Robbs__Dawson__Maguire__Elmo
Tailor made really.. Aluko could play anywhere in the attacking 4 players, meyler and hopefully quinn can rotate/cover for the 2 man midfield, obviously it was madness to get rid of rosie as he would have been perfect for either fullback position when needed.
now that, a 4-2-3-1 would surely be the way forward, its time to get rid of the the 3 at the back, wingback formation, it seems fairly easy to stop us from playing. where as this, if done properly would be very hard to stop.
also as bruce is a fairly defensive manager, it drops into a comfortable 4-4-1-1 when required.