12 games left to go now and while we have 2 of the top 6 to play in those 12 games, 8 of our games left are against bottom half teams (everyone bar Cardiff and ourselves). My question is, we have a two week break now to drill the lads, would you stick to the 5 at the back, 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 as it seemed last night, or would your go slightly more attacking for the final third of the season to try and nick some extra points. I think with Miggy coming into the team I'm in favor of getting more men forwards now. Understand why we've been backs to the wall, hitting them on the counter and it is getting results but think we now have enough about us to go slightly more attacking. Also with a lot of players returning from injury/internationals I think the squad is more suited to an slightly more attack minded game plan now. I'd personally be in favor of going to 4 at the back and pushing an extra man into the midfield either as a CM or AM. Go on give us some line up pornography I hear you say.... oh go on then: ----------------Dubravka------------------- OR ----------------Dubravka--------------- Yedlin-Lacselles-Lejuene-Dummett OR Yedlin-Lacselles-Lejuene-Dummett -----------Diame-Longstaff---------------- OR ------Diame-----Longstaff-----Ki------ --Perez---------Almiron---------Ritchie -- OR Ritchie----------------------------Almiron --------------------Rondon---------------------- OR ----------------Rondon--------------- So would you do stick to the tried and tested where we will pick up a couple of draws or try and nick a few extra "couple of points" from games?
---------------------Dubravka------------------------- Yedlin - Schar - Lascelles - Lejeune - Ritchie -------------- Longstaff - Hayden ---------------- ----------Perez ------------------ Almiron---------- ------------------Rondon-------------------------
Stick to the plan. Rafa has to play Rafa's way. This defensive counter attack football. It has never mattered what players he has at his disposal, this is his style. To change halfway through a season when we are in a delicate situation would be suicide. We can tweak our current plans a little but need to stick to the formula. By formula I mean the one he has adopted of late where we still carry a threat. Go back to the Chelsea approach etc we will get relegated. I think we will be fine this year provided we play to our strengths which is tight defence looking to nick something on the break.
But we haven't go to play Citeh again. Liverpool @ home is the only game in the run in I'd be saying lets just try and steal a point from. Everyone else - even Arsenal - I think we can give them a game. I will "bend the knee to Rafa" as ACS says if we go more attacking for the run in especially vs Huddersfield and Burnley in the next 2 games. I mean ffs Huddersfield only scored 14 goals (just over 0.5 a game while conceded 48 nearly 2.0 a game) this year, surely we can go a bit more offensive against that!
I think there is a happy medium though. All out defence against Man C and Chelsea in recent seasons has been a mistake. We've gained nothing from it. Sorry in the world of namby pamby soft cocks we've gained confidence from not being mullered... If you take how we approached the Man U home game last year or Arsenal this year, we didn't have loads of the ball but I would say we went for it. Its just going for it in Rafa's way was more about pressing higher rather than an actual attacking set up. I think that is what we need to stick to. A manager nor a team can change its DNA halfway through a season. If they do they invariably look disjointed and poorly drilled. I'd make small tweaks in the home games to get Almiron into good areas but largely stick to what Rafa has done since he realised the error of his ways when he was employing his own defensive version of catenaccio! Of course in the summer you'd like to think we can begin to evolve but I'm not sure that will happen under Rafa. He likes to stop the oppo before anything else. And he's very ****ing good at it too!
T, t and finally some more t. He hit on something against Wolves. 5-3-2 with midfielders breaking. Almiron looks like a footballer as opposed to Atsu, so swap those two. Then we will see what Rafa believes is our strongest XI. If we can get Dummett on the left with the right CB combo it’s going to be very hard to score against us, and with Rondon/Perez playing a real partnership, and Almiron off those two, we offer a real threat.
I would say Ritchie is actually a better wing back. Slightly weaker defensively granted but much better attacking wise. Considering we would be playing with 3 cbs then he is more than covered there as well as playing more defensive minded midfielders
4-2-3-1 ----------------Dubravka------------------- Yedlin-Lacselles-Lejuene-Dummett -----------Diame-Longstaff--------------- -Perez---------Almiron---------Ritchie- --------------------Rondon----------------- Easily switches to 5-4-1 with Dummy tucked in, Ritchie dropped back and Miggy moved out wide when your 2-0 up with 15 to go and just seeing it out if you have any tactical flexibility. If we do stick to 5 at the back I think Dummett is the key in a back 3 as he can give Richtie the license to get froward more often.
Stick with the 3 CDs as it's clearly working, Schar is playing well so he shouldn't be dropped. So something like --------------------------------Dubravka------------------------------- Yedline-------Schar------Laecelles-------Lejeurne-----Dummett -----------------------Diame---------Longstaff------------------------ -------------Almiron---------Rondon-----------Perez-------------- with Ritchie, Ki, Hayden and Fernandez the first to come on as subs, Muto and Shelvey can **** off.
Mind we saw against Wolves that Lejeune is not yet fully fit. Late on his lack of pace was badly exposed. They targeted him wit Costa. I know he's not the quickest anyway but I think it was more a case of him being still behind in fitness terms. His class had probably stopped that being exposed earlier.
ummmm....what exactly has he done? Scored a goal against Man U, and looked completely gash whenever he's been on apart from that. Looked bloody awful in the league cup match against Forest.
I'd say Muto, Perez and Almiron behind Rondon would be pretty **** hot, defo the most attacking minded 3 we could put in behind him.
