Im very happy so far with what were doing in the window, and with the sqaud we have feel we could be in and around the playoffs or possible automatic with a bit of luck which I think any club hoping for automatic will need. My question is what type of football bruce will have us playing, I get the feeling it wont be too pretty based on a few of his comments. Does anyone remember how birmingham played in the championship?
It'll be two strikers and wide players. We'll look to get the ball forward quicker than we did last season but we won't be hammering it forward and looking to feed off knock-downs. I think we'll be trying to play similar to Southampton or Norwich in the past couple of seasons. Bruce's Birmingham side had plenty of grit but had good footballers aswell. Players like Seb Larsson, Jermain Pennant, Niklas Bendtner, etc.
I don't think we need the Barmby/Barcelona/Arsenal way to be entertained. Winning under Brown (even in the Championship) was never boring.
Do we have enough grit in midfield at the moment? Cairney - ball player Oli - a bit powder puff to be brutally honest McKenna - plenty of chasing down and gets a tackle in Evans - Good engine, more of a link-up man Do we need a stopper-cum-hardman-cum-Ashbee type to break up play more and allow the foward players and wingers to prosper? We feel a bit lightweight at the moment.
Was talking about this at work last night, When Hobbs is back a defensive midfield of Faye and Mckenna should be okay depending on the opposition. ....................Faye..........Mckenna............. Aluko..................................................Stewart .............Proschwitz...........Fryatt.....................
Holding midfield is exactly that, more about positioning and reading the game, then running around like a headless chicken ala Marney Evans off the bench is an option if it needs freshening up, wouldnt mind tunnicliffe onloan too, Shame we cant get rid of Olifinjana so we can bring another holding midfielder in.
Just an example of a team we could put out, maybe a bit more effective against the stronger teams who knows Koren will miss games
The answer to that is a definite "NO". I don't think for one moment that Faye will ever partner McKenna because they fulfill they same role. We will need more creative intent in the middle of the park if we intend on moving away from 4-2-3-1. We MUST play Evans or Cairney or Tunnicliffe (if we get him) alongside either McKenna or Faye. Faye will play in the same side as McKenna only until Hobbs returns. What will be interesting will be to see where Koren is played!
Faye hasn't been a midfielder for about 6 years. I don't think we'll see him in there much, if at all.
It won't be as important as it was last year. Under Barmby/Pearson we played everything very gradually along the ground and didn't rush things, it relied on a string of good passes in a row and if the pitch slowed one down it made it easy for the defence. But a dodgy pitch can't stop wingers running at their men and getting crosses in, which is what I imagine we'll be trying to do more of this year. Agree with Theo on Faye's position. Also agree with what Strov says about needing a balance in midfield, though I'm not convinced a Mckenna Evans combo does that either. I'd like to see McKenna and Cairney together.
I seemed to remember that there was some talk of re-laying the pitch about now as there was a window in FC's fixtures where they where away for quite a while and of course the footy season hadn't started. Has that been put of ? ________________________________________________________________________________________ KINGSELLER WORLD OF COLLECTABLES www.kingseller.org.uk
