I would not have a problem with a back 3 experiment.....who would you bring in though, Higginbotham I suppose.? Although I can't agree with you about Drury, I just don't see him being good enough at this level. So a Town team set up as a back 3; Henderson Smith Chambers Higginbotham Hewitt Cressy Hyam Ndaw Martin Murphy DJ I would set us up as a 3-2-3-2 Ndaw & Hyam in front of a back 3 with Hewitt & Cressy WBs Martin playing in the hole behind DJ & Murphy...!
That's the problem, we'd probs need to get another couple of CB's in, in January, someone dominant in the air a bit taller than Chambers and Smith, they do well for their size but for a really tall striker I think they'll struggle. I just think our wingers are doing almost nothing atm and our fullbacks you've got Orr who isn't great going forward and Cresswell who isn't given alot of support, so we're being pretty poor down the wings, yet centrally aren't up to much either!! But one of those combinations yes although I'd perhaps like to see a more fluid flat 3 in midfield perhaps with a Garvan style playmaker in there (possibly in the future Lawrence) say similar to the midfield of Holland, Magilton and Wright where all where non sat infront of the defence but none were attacking midfielders, they could all do both!! I would actually perhaps like to see Chopra come in next game, he didn't do alot when he game on but got into some good positions and work hard when he came on, thought he showed more than DJ. Perhaps just to freshen things up a bit!!
Higginbotham is going back in a few days and good riddance as he has been a big liability! The 2 CB's we have are not bad as a partnership and are growing in confidence with every game. Tommy does have a rick in him as he has proved many times in the past but with a settled partner working with him his game will improve. He allowed John Stead the freedom of the 6 yard box time and again and its only down to the fact that he can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo that we got away with it. For the Dann's goal we had numerous chances to clear our lines in the build up! Ronald Zubar will be a very good signing in January at either RB or CB, big strong and powerful. I have watched Cresswell a lot and he just doesn't cut the mustard in other words he just isn't good enough at this level. The number of times yesterday when he had the chance to deliver a ball in and he ****ed it up every time! Martin is no good out wide and should be deployed just behind the front 2 in a more central position al la Scowie. We have no dead ball specialist in the team and we desperately need a midfielder who can actually score goals. I know Mick will sort it out eventually. If anyone had said to me in October that we would be 5th bottom at Christmas I would have taken that gladly!
@ ptc Edwards is not a right back and should not play there again. It was one of the reasons why we shipped a lot of goals before. Tommy Smith hardly loses a header, how dominant in the air do you want? 4-4-2 has worked well since Mick came in, we should probably have changed it up a bit yesterday due to the way Bristol were playing but I don't think we suddenly need to change our normal formation because of one game/ result. We kept changing systems under Jewell and that only worked for so long.
I know Edwards is not a RB but whenever I've seen him play at RW he fails to do alot and he looks far more dangerous attacking from a deeper lying position where he can overlap, and he seems to run at players whereas at RM he is cutting inside and doesn't take anyone on!! In my mind he suits a wing back role more than any other. If not just leave him out of the team!! I just think we probably need a slightly taller CB, we've got quite a small backline who all do well actually for their size to win as many headers as they do but I think when we face the taller forwards Smith and Chambers will struggle, I mean even Stead won a few headers yesterday due to his size and he's not exactly renowned for heading!! I can't really think of a formation which suits us atm, I prefer 442 but atm both our wingers are very ineffective. Orr doesn't attack much or well and Creswell due to Martin is often left isolated when defending and attacking I just think perhaps it may be worth giving a 5-3-2 a try as it will mean we play to Edwards and Creswells strengths, we don't have wingers (as I've said ours seems pretty ineffective atm) and means we can play Hyam, N'Daw and a more creative player centrally but still have 2 upfront!!
