It came from a comment by premiertiger. I hope it's bollocks. Had a hatred of the formation ever since it became trendy in the 90s with teams like Liverpool. The pundits would **** each other off about it. Meanwhile united kept winning everything with a 442.
Dealing with the second bit first, I can't think of another team having strengthened their squad by signing anybody I'd want, at least not at the prices paid. There's bound to have been good signings by the relegated clubs but they're much weaker than last season, and probably Leicester with De Laet (I've never really thought much of the midfielder that signed with him who's name escapes me for now). Even you guys with Kenny, a year ago that signing would have been ominous but knowing some QPR fans they've been saying for the back end of last season that since he came back from his injury he's not been anything like the player he was before. When it comes to us it's really too early to say because I've not seen so much of the team playing yet. I got my assessment of our squad spot on this time last year, right down to the tactics managers would use against us that would be successful, and where our squad would come up short (figuratively and literally). Now at the start of the summer I had in mind 9 signings that needed to be made, and so far every one of Bruce's signings has ticked one of them off the list, and his comments about the future signings seem to match the rest (slight tweaks to targets due to probable tactical change aside). Whether all the players work out is a different matter, especially with Faye and Proschwitz who play in positions where success is about the partnership as much as the individual. At the moment I'm very happy with the way things are shaping up though, they might not be spectacular signings we're making, but we're getting the type of players we've been missing. If they gel well then I'd expect us to be competing for the top two, and I'd expect us to need a lot of bad luck not to make the playoffs. If they don't gel well then we've no chance because there's so many of them been needed to address the gaping holes in the squad, but I don't think so far I could criticise any of the signings we've made (I'm assuming he hasn't gone and signed Bruce Jnr now that we've got Faye).
The whole 5-3-2 thing is a bit of an overreaction. We started with a back 3 at Ferriby, not a back 5 it was a 3. The wingers were Stewart and Dudgeon and they were absolutely not defenders they were wingers. Also when they did that back line warm up thing before the game it was just the 3 central defenders doing it. Premiertiger said he has heard that a back 3 might be something Bruce wants to do. As far as I can see, only Ricardo has turned that into a 5-3-2 because he thinks that it would be Dudgeon and Rosenior who are of course primarily defenders. It's also important to remember this back 3 only lasted half a game and since then we've played 4-4-2 for the remaining 2 and a half games. Bruce might well like to play with a back 3 now and then, but there's been nothing to suggest he'd play a back 5 at all and I fully expect us to play a back 4 the majority of the time.
A lot of people are mentioning aluko in their starting line ups. Heard that a deal has been accepted and he's had a medical. But not signed on the dotted line. Anyone know the bobby about this.
