Following DH's logic of 'another Martin on the left side' City could go for a player like Mulgrew of Celtic who is capable of playing both CB and LB, and who is meant to be an excellent crosser when playing LB. I don't know his play well, but CH will have seen him when he was scouting Hooper. There must be others like that and it would mean that Ayala could also be kept on at CB. Also, in an emergency situation, Johnson could drop back to LB where he has played on occasions before for Leeds, but having said that, I still think LB is a priority over CB, as we already have Ayala and even Barnett options there. As for DM, I would stick with Johnson, backed up by Tettey, who to me is a hybrid DM/ACM whereas Howson is an ACM who can also defend reasonably well. My priority would be another ACM in that role who could be a deep playmaker as well as getting forward to set-up or score goals.
I don't understand this. Is Snodgrass "an out-and-out winger"? There's a bit more of a case to categorise Pilkington in those terms, but that is not a recommendation for playing him on the left behind a single striker. Playing one up front you don't want "out-and-out wingers". You want the forward four to show a lot of lateral movement, swapping positions and interlinking. The last thing you want is someone just running the line. IMO a fully fit Surman is an ideal player to select on the left side of three behind a single striker.
I would agree with that. Surman plays more like Huckerby (without the pace!). Pilks tends to go down the line and then cut in, while Surman likes to cut in to allow the FB to overlap. That creates a dilemma for the opposing FB? Who does he mark? It was interesting how effective the City attack was in the final games where they did move around and make it difficult for the opposition. Hopefully we'll see more of that this year!
Surman also much more likely to play a forward in with a pass/ through ball as opposed to a cross. He likes passing interchanges.
The problem with Surman is accommodating him really. A diamond midfield fitted him perfectly, as he's not disciplined enough to play wide, and not strong enough in the tackle to necessarily play centrally. But we'd get cut to pieces on the wings if we played a traditional diamond. --------------Ruddy------------ Whittaker-Turner-Bassong-Garrido ------------Johnson------------- ------Howson------Surman------ Snodgrass----Hoolahan---------- ------------Wolfswinkel---------- maybe? Hoolahan and Surman can interchange and cover the left side, I guess Toivonen would fit nicely into that too as he can play wider or centrally, instead of either Surman or Hoolahan, depending on the opposition.
Here again, I don't quite understand. What "discipline" is required to play wide in a forward quartet featuring a single striker? Put another way, would you class Pires and Ljungberg as "disciplined wide players" in that Arsenal attack which also featured Henry and Bergkamp? What you need from the attacking four is constant awareness of the movement of the other three and the ability to slot in to the space created by their movement. Defensive cover for the full backs is chiefly the responsibility of the deeper lying midfielders, rather than of a "disciplined" winger tracking back; in that Arsenal team, the left side of defence was covered by Viera and the right side by Gilberto Silva. Getting back to Surman, I don't regard him as any less disciplined from a defensive point of view than Pilkington. Neither of them is particularly great at helping out their full back. It is just that Pilkington is a bit quicker. Snodgrass and Elliott Bennett are much better in that respect. Snodgrass in particular has improved this aspect of his play immensely since joining us and is now a much more complete player in consequence. I agree about Toivonen, and see that as being exactly why we are interested in signing him.
As regards Toivenon, what he would bring is flexibility and movement in mid-field as well as passing, playing others through and scoring himself. City definitely need more goal-scoring from mid-field, as Howson showed in the final games. Fox can provide the passing, but he's never going to score many goals.
