After last night's second half debacle,I think it's time for MM to show a bit more tactical flexibility . Some might see 5:3:2 as more defensive but at times presently we are playing with a back six(and at times eight) Cresswell and Edwards/Hewitt as WBs would give us the width we are presently lacking and I think Berra (and possibly Hyam long term) have the makings of a sweeper. Whilst I'll be eternally grateful to Mick for digging us out of a deep and sheety hole last season he now needs to show some adaptability to take us forwards instead of sideways.
put something very similar on the Barnsley match thread. If we are going to play with 3 Central defenders, attacking full back, albeit only 1 of them currently and wide midfielders that cant/ dont play as attacking widemen then we may as well put round pegs in round holes as the saying goes. Personally I dont think it will happen. I think MM will stick with 442 but the personnal seem to fit better with wingbacks at the moment.
For me, although we could really do with a proper right back the defence is working so I wouldn't change the back line and hence would be playing four at the back.
I've been saying this since last season. I think we'd look a far more balanced team with a 532 or even a 433. This Micks a round pegs in round holes man is a complete myth, he's no more it than any other manager we've had. The only problem I see with us playing 532 is I think you need to be brave to play it and have confident CBs who are good ball players and I'm not sure we have this. Under Burley we played it alot but we had defenders who used to step up and make things happen on the ball aswell as off it. I'm not sure Mick would set out to get his CBs to do this, neither do I really think we have CBs who are overly competant on the ball.
Not sure that the system is the main problem, looking at last nights game, its obvious to me that we have players simply not good enough for this level of football, the players who can compete with any degree of confidence, are just journeyman players. The team is unbalanced at the back, the midfield can not dominate a game for 90 minutes, and we regularly lose our way in the second half, and the front men become isolated. Our leading lights are Mcgoldrick and Cresswell, but for me Anderson is a passenger, and I fail to see what he gives to the party. Hyam is out of his depth, and is not a Championship player, and although he puts his heart into every game, Tommy Smith is not good enough, if we are thinking in terms of a promotion pushing team, all I saw from him last night was him looking ponderous and ungainly, and just booting the ball into the stands when we were under the slightest pressure. We have to be the slowest team in the whole league in terms of pace, we have nobody who plays regularly who has any real pace to panic teams, this would be a great threat especially if we had real pace down the flanks, its interesting to note that the quickest player we have is the oldest, Carlos Edwards, who of course is not a regular now
