Yeah but you need 2 people for each place to make up a 25 man squad meaning we still need 2 CM to swap with those 2 depending on if Derry stays or not. Im pretty sure Buz will be gone.
Agreed flyer....I just wouldn't want Barton to stay in the squad. Imagine the bad blood with him playing 2nd fiddle to the starting players?
He may have liked 4-4-2, but he hasn't risked that too often with us! Normally he has used 3 central midfield players all playing pretty defensive roles. I could see a Barton (without his malignence) playing central defensive MF with Ale on his left, and Diakite on his right.
If the back four were a sound well-drilled unit you wouldn't need to be so defensive in midfield. You could use Diakite as a box-to-box player and Faurlin in a more creative role from deep in a similar way to the way Parker and Modric are used by Spurs. It was no coincidence that Spurs were looking at Faurlin as a possible replacement for Modric if he had gone to Chelsea...
When I read this Igor I was thinking Cisse's first red home to Wolves was very harsh. True he put his hand on the guys face but nothing more. Now I just seen a replay of Carroll holding a Swansea players face a lot more violently Sunday, and he got away with a yellow. I think Cisse was unlucky there. Both Barton's reds were harsh, the more I see of his elbowing Tevez the more Tevez seems to make a meal of it.
I think he was forced into that through Cisse's absence mate. First chance he had, MH put Cisse and BZ up top together. I don't like 3 defensive midfielders....far too negative!!
Cisse has played more in a midfield 5 when he's started. He started with BZ in what was maybe a 4- 4 -2 against Citeh, but that very quickly became 4 - 5 -1 with BZ well back. MH is conservative, but arguably with our porous defense he needed to be to tighten things up, which he did and it worked. Just! I cannot really see MH being quick to change this cautious approach next season, particularly in the tougher games.
