I was rather baffled by the decision to switch to 4-4-2 yesterday. There was nothing wrong with the formation, we just weren't creating enough in the second half and it needed freshening up. I thought there was an obvious answer, Elmo for Odubajo (Konchesky's ****e, Elmo always does well against him and Odubajo wasn't testing him at all) and Maloney for Clucas (Clucas is exactly like Quinn, a tidy player who rarely loses possession, but doesn't create much either). I thought Aluko and Hernandez were both doing well, we just needed to get the ball to them more often, Robertson and Odubajo were both doing well in the first half, but did little in the second (Robertson made some poor decisions with his shooting late in the game).
It was obviously to accommodate Maloney taking Bruce off. I agree logically Clucas probably was the one to go off and bring Maloney on, but I guess SB thought Clucas was playing OK, and it was easier to change to 442.
We have Dawson and Davies at the back there is really no need to play 3 CB's to me in this league. QPR were amazingly ****e, Austn aside. I like Dave and if Elmo hadda left then no problem. But if you want a RWB or RB then Elmo pisses all over Dave . As you say i didnt realise it was Konchesky till near the end, he had a good game, but Elmo would have run him ragged. Dave was very very conscious of not losing it and repeatedly turned back and gave it to Dawson or Greegsy. Robertson, Aluko and Hernandez flatter to deceive there is no end product.
You need a formation that works when we don't have the ball, as well as when we do. QPR packed the midfield, if we had taken off Clucas's workrate they would have dominated us in the middle of the pitch. Like most midfielders whose play fails to achieve recognition amongst City fans, his most effective work is done when we don't have the ball. His running today was astounding. He's the new Junior Lewis. And I say that as someone who rated Junior as an important player in our promotion teams, back in the day.
They dominated the middle of the pitch with him on, Maloney is capable of testing teams far more, it was a thoroughly pedestrian second half performance.
How we lose control of the midfield is getting to be a big problem now , it reduces the defence to playing hoof ball as we've no midfield to play it through, what make's it more worrying for me is the talent we've got there, we should be winning the midfield battle week in, week out.
I agree with sticking with 3-5-2, Robertson and Clucas were combining well and switching lost this threat, why not stick with 3 CB's, sub Maloney straight for Diame when he tires and let one of the big 3 (Curtis) go up top for a few late attacks?
I think he was just trying something during the match to influence a positive score line. QPR are not going to be a push over as they still have some very good players, we should consider ourselves lucky to have a point after they missed that chance from a yard out near the end. It does baffle me home and away how bad our possession stats are. Even dropping down a division with PL players we still average for most parts 35-40%. It's not a key stat, but at least when we have the ball the opposition can't score.
I agree about Clucas - Tidy player, but I still think he looks like a poor - man's Stephen Quinn. Clucas needs to find some confidence to try things - there were far too many times yesterday when he opted to play safe and go backwards instead of looking to pick a forward pass when he had options on. Same with crossing opportunities too - there was a few times he could have played in a first-time cross and instead chose to control only and pass it back to the defence. There is a good player in there - but he needs to gain some confidence and look to be more positive. Odubajo was the same too - Robertson looked to drive forward on the left, Odubajo on the right, looked to play it safe for the majority of the game.
Alex Bruce was knackered. In the second half, just before he went off, he was huffing and puffing in front of the North stand like he smoked forty a day.
Oh and was Meyler on the bench yesterday? Felt the game was crying out for him to come on and add some steel to our midfield, as we were getting bullied. I think Meyler sitting deeper would allow Diame and Huddlestone to concentrate on attacking/creating chances.
Maybe the way to get the best out of Huddlestone is to give him a free role, could be something to what you say with Meyler or Livermore doing the defensive work or the running machine Clucas even
It'd have to be Livermore for me, Meyler wouldn't have added anything yesterday. He's not consistent enough at the moment and he's been sloppy in possession. He's better deployed against MK Dons and Rotherham, who like to kick lumps out of us.
He's the new Junior Lewis.[/QUOTE] Don't put pressure on the young lad. He's got a long way to go (downhill) before he can even be mentioned in the same breath.
We had nearly 60% v Brighton & lost, percentages are about where on the field you have it, if a team has 90% possession in their own half & lose it once & conceed, doesn't matter the other team only has 10%!
That must be wrong. We've never had that much possession for as long as I can remember. The opposition is still less likely to score if you are only allowing them 35-40% of the ball in 90 minutes. It's common sense isn't it? We spend a lot of time with our low percentage of possession passing sideways and backwards.
If we'd used the same formation two games on the trot, this board would be full of squealing about how the opposition had worked us out.
Generally I midfield players don't pass and move forward into space, they pass then stay back to be an out option. We need to see Huddlestone in particular pass then move forward into space to receive the return.
