Crooks and Gelhardt signed. Both midfielders. So how does that fit in with alzate slater and puerta? Plus palmer when he’s fit? Omur to go? I thought we needed a a winger or two and another centre forward? definitely a left back which looks to be reliant on getting rid of the problem! Giles. I’ve seen 4-2-2-2 mentioned! How the **** does that work then??
4-2-2-2 is what he used at Southampton and briefly at Reading in League One (he changed to a more conventional 4-3-3 with wingers). It's basically two holding midfielders, two number 10s who are given freedom to drift wide and roam into space to receive the ball and two strikers. please log in to view this image Something like this. I suppose you could play any of Crooks, Ömür, Palmer (when fit), Gelhardt and even Pedro in the attacking midfield positions. Alzate, Puerta and Slater for the deeper midfield positions.
I could see this as a pragmatic response to Belloumi/Millar being injured, but with having Kamara and a new winger being signed, aren't the signs that he'll persevere with wingers? Or, would the thinking be that the wingers are versatile enough to play the AM and striker role (as in Kamara has played as a forward before)
Sure he mentioned playing with a 6 and 2 no 8's after Donny, so I don't expect we'll see the 4 2 2 2 as a regular starting formation. And Geldhart has just said in his interview he'll either be playing off the 9 or as a right sided forward, which makes sense as the 2 wide players tend to come closer together when Pedro drops deep out of possession. I'd expect Crooks to play as an 8 to provide a bit more physicality and attacking end product, and Geldhart as a wide forward or second striker when circumstances call for it.
Not really bothered if we play 11 goalkeepers if come end May we're still in this division... then start again, yet again...
Crooks will be central with Gelhardt and Kamara either side of Pedro (at least until we get this other winger sorted).
Crooks is either where Puerta/Slater has been in recent weeks or we swap shape with Crooks being the more advanced with 2 sitting deeper. Gelhardt will either come on for Pedro, or fall into the same as Crooks where the shape will change and he will sit behind the striker with 2 deeper midfielders. Also mentioning he could be used out wide right
With Longman on his way out we'll be using him in a wide berth initially, I reckon. The way they played it relied heavily on their world class fullbacks though. Have we got that?
They're currently 4th in the Bundesliga and finished 4th last year too. It's actually the opposite. Having six central players (two defensive mids, two attacking mids and two strikers) in the middle and final thirds allows teams playing 4-2-2-2 to press high and win second balls in the middle of the pitch. It's the same principle used by teams that invert a fullback into midfield to create a four-man 'box midfield' like Man City and Chelsea do, except the 3-2-4-1 shape only has one striker in possession. If anything, the 4-2-2-2 leaves you vulnerable down the sides as it's very narrow. It requires fullbacks who have the energy and work-rate to be wingbacks in possession and defensive fullbacks out of possession.
I cant see any reason at all that Alzate and Puerta lose their place for anyone.... we look an ok side with both on the pitch at the same time..
I’d imagine that Crooks will push forward when we need or want to play it long down the middle, to either try and flick on for wide players/10s to run onto or to try and bring it down and lay it off. I suspect he and the ‘striker’ will be interchangeable throughout the game.
Although I love an old school winger, they're just out of fashion. The 4-2-2-2 just makes sense with our squad but he needs to be dead sure they've got it down on the training ground. Long term I reckon Belloumi could play in one of the 10 roles and hasn't Millar played wingback? He's got the energy but not sure about his defending. Don't see it happening though.
