I reckon the reason we hung onto Gayle and why Fatty didn't spend is that he is hedging his bets. He probably half expects us to go down so is trying to retain the better championship players for next year. If we are out of the relegation zone by Christmas expect him to spend. Well... there's hardly anyone else left to sell bar Haidara and Pirlo.
My theory on gayle- wanted to stay even though we wanted to sell. Didn't have the required energy on deadline Day to even summon the chopper
My theory on Gayle? Don't play him up top on his own. Stick Joselu/Mitro in the CF/Striker slot and play Gayle in the No10 role - use his pace to run off knock downs from the forward etc
This. We have two large, strong and decent forwards. They can beat openings in defence and give our scorers more opportunities. That's our best way to score goals. Lone striker is probably the worst.
Agreed, but it still works even if you go with 4-5-1 4-4-1-1 Seems a no brainer given our current squad, but can't see it happening
I said this at the start of last season just after Gayle signed. I don't think Rafa has tried it once.
This is probably my one real criticism - there never seems to be an alternative. We continually try and slot square pegs into round holes - initially, that could be forgiven with an inherited squad, but that's got to be wearing thin now - even allowing for our **** transfer window. Why spend most of our budget on wingers if you're going to play one of our smaller players upfront in his own? We're now set up for this, even if he doesn't want to use Mitro - will we play it - probably not....
