There has been a lot of debate on our first eleven and best formation recently, but the thing which has confused me is we're set up completely different from the end of last season Last season we played the our best season (In my opinion) With Kuyt and Suarez upfront! We began under Kenny playing with 3 at the back with progressive wingbacks, which made us quite unpredictable and flexible but its been a style this season which we havnt played Last season we played (Correct me if im wrong) GK CB CB CB RB LB DM CM CM SS CF Very attacking on the ball with a strong spine off the ball, I did like this formation a lot and this season I think we have players that could compliment it I think we could line up something like this (Players fully fit) Reina Skrtel Carragher Agger Johnson/Kelly Enrique Lucas Gerrard Adam/Henderson Suarez Kuyt I've chosen Kuyt upfront because I think we need to start pressing from the front and win the ball higher up the field, we tend to sit back and let the other team have the ball. Also Kuyt and Suarez seem to link up really well. By no means am I knocking Carroll, but in my opinion we need to do to him what we're doing with Henderson at the moment, Slowly ease him in to the team, hes still only young and carrys a heavy price tag on his shoulders. The main flaw with this formation is the lack of width, But with Downing and Bellamy on the bench we have plenty of width to come on off the bench if we need to, or if we're struggling to break down sides. A lot of our width last season was dependent on Johnson and Aurelio getting down the flanks, Johnson and Enrique are both good attacking fullbacks which would solve the width problem. Having 3 in Midfield really compensates for Adams lack of positional sense with Lucas playing just infront of the back three. Obviously the first Eleven will change when we actually do figure out our best Eleven
Cant see Gerrard bein involved Also if Carra plays with 3CBs , for my money that means Downing will be dropped as you tend not to play wingers,with wing backs Id pack the midfield and play 433/451.Can see both Hendo & Kuyt startin for there energy
We did briefly toy with a 3-5-2/5-3-2 last season when we hosted Chelsea and snotted 'em 3-0. It meant that Agger could step out with the ball, the wing backs for push on more and the midfield was able to dominate. - the downside to the formation tends to be when the opposition plays good quality wingers able to exploit the full back areas, pulling the centre-backs out of position. We've not played it so far this season, as we've not really had to deal with free-scoring opponents. It might change as Chelsea and Citeh are both scoring for fun in the league, so additional security at the back may be needed. Chelsea play a fairly fluid front 3 and consequently, if we can dominate midfield, Mata will drop deeper and we should be able to handle the other two with more comfort. Citeh are something else again - I reckon them too strong to overwhelm in midfield, should they choose to reinforce there, so again a back 3 will have to be strong and get good protection from Lucas. We'll need Downing to combine well with Johnson and Enrique to get round the back there and disrupt the Citeh back line. They've good playing away from home, scoring freely, but they do concede away from home, so we'll need to take advantage of that.
