4-5-1 or 4-4-2????

Same again surely??

The composure of the second half against Ipswich must be built upon.

I think with Koren and Brady pushing on we can make 4-5-1 work again.

I don't think TWS will be as easy as some suggest, but if we are patient surely the loss of Gradel and Howson gives us a great opportunity at Bellend Road.

 

Not too sure really, I'm sure Nige will choose whichever formation he feels Leeds will struggle against the most. I reckon 4-5-1 will mainly work against the bigger teams and 4-4-2 against the smaller (with some exceptions of course) so it depends what you see Leeds as at the moment, considering their start and loss of Gradel and Howson.

 

Does the team become this in October?

..................Gulacsi
Rosenior Hobbs Chester Dudgeon
.......Koren McKenna Cairney
Stewart .......................Brady
..................Fryatt

 

As soon as you bring Stewart back it can become more of a 4-2-3-1 work as with Koren, Stewart and Brady you have a bit of pace, fluidity as well as class. I feel you can either make the formation that i previously said or you can move Stewart back upfront where he played far better alongside Simpson upfront.

 

same again as saturday for me @ Leeds.. 4 - 5 - 1 which can fast become 4 - 3 - 3.

it aint broke so dont fix it NP.

 

I suspect if Koren plays in the middle it'll be Evans and McKenna rather than Cairney and McKenna so that there's someone who works box to box. We wouldn't get away with having McKenna (even if he works hard) there sitting in front of the defence, Koren being in effectively a free role, and Cairney being Cairney.

 

Cairney being Cairney. You mean far and away our best CM? He has been head and shoulders above anyone else.

 

I don't think he is saying Cairney is not our best central midfielder, but you can't get away with two central midfielders being fairly lightweight and only really getting involved when we have the ball.

 

Think we will see an all round game from Cairney this season, he's getting stronger by the week as he continues to grow so will be able to give more defensively

 

It's worth sticking with Cairney for the time being since he's been one of our top performers so far, unless we come up against a team we expect to have less of the ball against in which case NP might want Evans in there with McKenna as they both can muck in a bit more defensively, but for now i'm happy to give Cairney the starts.

It'll be interesting to see who NP plays against Reading when they come to the KC on the 27th since they're a much more threatening team going forward (even without Long). I think i'd prefer to see Evans in that game, or maybe i'm being a bit pessimistic!

 

One game @ a time eh

 

Same team and formation tonight as used on Saturday.

 

Yeah of course!

Just thinking about why Cairney would maybe drop out and the Reading game came to mind.

 

I'm hoping as long as Cairney is playing well he will be in the team

I like the idea of Brady/Koren/Stewart having free roles, allowing 3 central midfielders

 

I mean that to get the best out of Koren and McKenna you give them roles that don't require them to be constantly running from one end of the pitch to the other, and that I'd want them both in the team in a free role and in a holding midfielder role respectively. That means playing a midfielder that's capable of getting from box to box to support the team at both ends alongside them and that means Evans rather than Cairney, because after giving the ball to the wingers in our own half he's got more chance of being in or around the box when a cross comes in. It is assuming that McKenna is going to be a replacement for Ashbee rather than another Harper style of defensive midfielder, otherwise I'd probably go Cairney and Evans, with Evans primarily holding. We'd get away with that as we shouldn't need to protect Evans' legs to get him through the 90 minutes, he could go forwards more than McKenna and that would mean Cairney not having the pace to keep up with attacks would be less of an issue.

I also think playing Cairney in that role would be wasting him, I think we'd benefit much more from him if he was seen as an alternative to Koren (as Koren was playing wide right at Ipswich I would hope McKenna, Evans, and Cairney were playing something similar to what I'm suggesting). The two of them are both capable (when Cairney has the confidence) of sitting between the opposition defence and midfield to thread balls between the centrebacks and full backs for the wingers to run onto, or through the middle if of the centrebacks if the striker can time a run correctly. They're also both players that when a cross comes in and a defender heads it out you want getting on the end of it 20-30 yards out to fire a shot towards the top corner through the crowded area. If he was playing in the box to box role he wouldn't be likely to get in the position to do either of those things.

If of course when I see him playing in the flesh Cairney has developed the ability/motivation to play a pass at the back and then get forward as well I'll gladly change my mind.

 

...................Gulacsi

Rosenior Hobbs Chester Dudgeon

.....Evans McKenna ..Cairney

..Stewart .....Fryatt ......Brady

Is this the October line-up then?



Koren in the Stewart role until then?

 

TC's definately shown improvement so far (in pre-season and regular) but obviously we're only 2 games in. It's positive to see him showing that he's tough enough for this league and he's even thrown himself into a few tackles so far (of our 3 yellow cards he's got one of them).
As for playing a pass and going forward there was one moment against Blackpool when he jinked past one player took the ball forward a few yards then played an inch perfect through ball to the striker who fluffed it (might have been Fryatt, can't remember).
It's only one example and it may not be an example of pass and move like you want to see but it was one of them 'out of nowhere you suddenly realise you're out of your seat' moments and it definately deserves a mention!

 

As said above, when Stewart comes back, try out 4-2-3-1 with:

...................Gulacsi/Basso................
Rosenior....Chester....Hobbs....Dudgeon
.................Evans....Cairney..............
........Stewart.....Koren.....Brady.........
.......................Fryatt.....................

Not saying it would definately work but since we struggle for goals at home its worth a try.