The people saying I'd rather have Gary Rowett are the same people who always say 'what about that lad who's banging in goals in League 1?' They have no idea about levels! Silva - Managed at Olympiakos and Sporting Rowett - Managed at Burton and Birmingham Hmm which do we choose![/QUOTE] Hope I'm proved wrong, but we have to be realistic. With our run of games, we are going to be too far adrift. Need someone to steady the ship who knows the championship.
Discarding our current players. A modern footballer whatever the position needs pace and a good engine. With regards to whether a player is a wing back or a right back, the expectation of the modern game is to over lap and attack and provide support down either wing. The exception is probably Guardiola. I'll use a recent example home game v Everton. Everton played 4 at the back. Coleman and Baines traditional RB and LB - yet they were both very attacking. Coleman headed the ball against our post and Baines fired in the cross for Barkley to score the equaliser. They were both more attacking than our LWB and our RWB. It's just the way the game is changing.
I couldn't get my head around the 3-4-3 formation, as it effectively means playing 2 in the middle and 3 strikers, but lots of clubs are trying it now with decent successes. It's quite popular abroad and with foreign coaches. Maybe he'll bring something new in that nobody has a plan against.
A gung Ho 0-0-10 formation. He genuinely doesn't have time or games to mess with the formation. He needs to use what has been effective over the last 4-5 games but without the rewards. Introduce some new players into that formation to get the winning ingredients.
Similar with Walker and Rose. They sometimes play as modern day fullbacks, other times RWB's. They have central midfielders protecting the back 3, 4 or even 5 who will drop in if they go forward. These two, like most full backs in the modern game are more adept at attacking. Obviously they will be better defensively if playing LB as they have a LM protecting them.
Sorry, how many points have we got since we played 3 at the back? We've gained a lot of possession and played nice in midfield because we outnumbered the opposition. We defended appallingly probably because we only had 3 at the back.
I think he has to mess with it as our supposed rock solid back 3 are anything but. I'm hoping he has been studying us for weeks and is going to hit the ground running.
Like most things, there is some element of truth in what you say; although I would point out we don't employ robots, as engines and pace do vary at every level - text book speak is great, but it doesn't always transfer to reality. I know the game is evolving, as I used that exact argument, over a year ago, about how FBs and WBs can be utilised together under very certain circumstances - I've never had any issue challenging what is. It has certainly been done abroad. Mý point is that you need horses for courses, so the atributes of the players cannot be ignored. We know that playing Robbo and Elmo as WBs massively suits their personal attributes. Their defensive frailties, which many on here have commented about, make them far less suitable to be played as FBs. This, for me, means there is a difference between the two roles and getting players to combine them, at this level, is difficult. Perhaps that is why professionals speak of 442, 352, 532 and differentiate between Full Backs and Wing Backs. As a matter of interest, do you think Dave can play as a RWB? I'm not arguing this for the sake of it, I believe it is critically overlooked in recruitment leading to lopsided squads with real selection problems because a decent player cannot be played as the shape doesn't suit him; or a decent valuable player is played, even though he really shouldn't be, as the position really is wrong for him. Do you know of a team that has suffered this malady of late?
It's the best we've played. Same formation but with a change of personnel. Everyone generally accepts we have played well. We've created chances which we hadn't been doing. It just requires fine tuning.
Hope I'm proved wrong, but we have to be realistic. With our run of games, we are going to be too far adrift. Need someone to steady the ship who knows the championship.[/QUOTE] We did that Yo-Yo **** with Bruce; let'sbe adventurous.
If all the back room staff have all gone and the new guy is to be in place before the Swansea who will be taking training for the next few days?
"lets prepare for the chumpionship" **** off! we have 1/2 a season to go yet! there are over 50 points to play for! where is your ambition guys?
Odubajo? I'm not sure, I think he played better without Elmo in front of him as they seemed to get in each other's way. Or had bizarre instructions for one to not pass the half way line. You do need to recruit specific players for specific positions, something our policy of late has been sadly lacking. I think a good quality Premier league team will buy a RB or LB to fulfil both roles - Askew gave a good example of the lads at Spurs. There's also Liverpool with Milner and Clyne, I think Milner is superb - would love a player as adaptable and powerful as him at City. Leicester were very targeted in signing players with specific attributes to fit in specific positions - Albrighton one. They calculated he put more crosses into dangerous areas than almost any other PL player. He's not done so bad for them. Unfortunately they lost the head of recruitment - Arsenal I think.
