New formation ideas? - 4-4-2/4-3-1-2?

Perez should not be up front alone or even in the middle of a 4-3-3.

He's quick and skillful, but he's being asked to do a lot to be swamped in a league like this, and has done fantastic to score and assist as much as he has already.

But I think we need to be more fair to the lad. We need to have him playing off someone else, and I think that someone should be Riviere, who hasn't been given much of an opportunity.

Riviere is struggling to score, but he's shown good pace, strength and ability to hold up the ball, so I think we should play Riviere and Perez up front to together.

-------------Riviere-----Perez--------
------------------Cabella----------------
--------Colback---------Sissoko----------
------------------Anita/Tiote------------
Haidara------Colo----Williamson------Janmaat
----------------------Krul-----------------------

I don't really believe we have the wide midfield players to create anything from the wings, and should rely on our fullbacks to deliver from wide areas.

Riviere can handle strong opponents. Have him back into players, wrestle with them, and have the likes of Perez, Cabella and Sissoko making runs around him, and find players in space.

 

Sensible suggestion. Agree to a certain extent but don't think you are taking into account that De Jong is expected back soon and hopefully expected not to be injured again soon and that he will play most of the games from here on in. Not sure how that lot would then line up but De Jong would be in the number 10 position for me and would hate to see Cabella pushed out to the wing again as he's much better floating. It would possibly be

-------------------Perez------------------
---------Cabella--------De Jong--------
-----------------Sissoko----------
---------Colback-------Abeid-------------
Haidara-----Dummett-----Colo------Janmaat
----------------------Krul-----------------------

 

I don't understand the Dummett > Williamson thing really. Williamson isn't great but he's no worse than anyone playing CB at the moment IMO. At least he provides an aerial presence and is able to fight off bigger players. There were a few corners vs Southampton that we were lucky not to concede. Pelle raped our CB's in the air from crosses, set pieces, everything! Dummett has better pace, and perhaps a better sliding tackle, but that's it really. Williamson has been our best CB over the last 18 months or so, in terms of consistency and fitness.

 

I don't understand the Willo or Haidara thing, I think they're both ****e.

Dummett centre back and Santon (I know he is not fantastico defensively) left back.

Quite simple for me, Dummett is a better centre half than Willo. Haidara looks championship standard at best. Dummett is not as good at left back. Santon has his own problems but he is far far better than either Dummett or Haidara (who I believe may be semi-******ed)

The squad is not very good generally but obviously I think we all know, our defensive options are rubbish.

 

On the general point of Perez I do think he struggles in a lone role. It has worked on occasion though, mainly because Pardew gave Sissoko a lot of freedom to play in attacking areas, meaning essentially Perez did have a partner. Already under Carver I can see Sissoko is not getting into the same areas. Also because we have been shorn of Aarons and Obertan's pace, the isolation is exaggerated. If you have pace you move up quicker as a unit and get support to the front man a lot quicker.

There are two ways of playing it as I see it squad wise. You either have two for every position like say Mourinho likes. This allows you to stick to one formation and have a clear identity. Or you have different types and then have the ability to switch formations regularly. Sam Allardyce has done this very well this season even though I dislike him. I do think the 2nd option carries a lot more risk, because you can over complicate things and it requires a lot of coaching/management. Pardew wanted to be option one here. However he never had the personnel for it. As soon as injuries came he didn't have the guy to step into the breach. He had Willo or Mbiwa stepping in who were nothing like the other two. He Gouf or Sammy stepping in who were nothing like the other two. He had Cisse etc stepping in, nothing like the other two. So on and so forth. Worse still we never had the quality underneath and Pardew didn't really know how to exercise option 2 either. So we always got caught out and our level dropped off.

Again I'd point to an imbalance in the squad. We should have a Pelle/Carroll/Lambert/Benteke/Costa/Lukaku/Giroud/Dzeko/Bony/Adebayor/Wickham/Crouch etc (just making the point most clubs balance their strikeforce by naming 12 of 20 clubs) type option in the squad regardless. Even if you use the option 1 of 2 for every position you still need that centre forward who gives you the option of going to the front quicker or holding the ball better.

We have the 2nd striker in SDJ to come back. If we had the target man, Cisse, Perez and SDJ, I think we'd have a nice balance in our front line. you have Cisse and Perez competing for one role, then you have the option of playing one of the other two.

 

Haidara was actually very good attacking wise for me. He whipped in some decent balls and did quite well fighting against rose. He showed lack of quality sometimes, but the ****er needs a ****ing chance! We had so many chances under Pardew to play Haidara, and he chose Dummett instead.

And I'm sorry, but without Williamson, we have no aerial presence and will get raped. We're just waiting to be ****ed from set pieces and crosses with Colo and Dummett in the middle together.

I don't see what Dummett has over Williamson really that makes him superior.

 

One example is in attacking play. I was screaming at Dummett on Saturday for not putting his head through the ball and scoring when he glanced a header wide. With Williamson I don't think I've ever seen him win a meaningful header in all his time here in the opposition box. I suppose that is better in the long term for my throat!

Second example is I don't think Williamson's heading abilities in defence, which aren't startling in any event, outweigh his negative affect on our play such as Willo hoofball and slowness to think and move.

Don't get me wrong, I think Willo is a whole hearted, one hundred percent tryer but unfortunately he just isn't good enough at this level.

Also would agree that I prefer Santon for all his deficiencies to Dummett or Haidara at left back.

 

Sorry Tash but we will never agree here. Haidara is not very good, and it has nothing to do with opportunity.

In every single game he has ever played, the ****er has miscontrolled the ball out of play or had it go under his foot, just generally not looked good enough with a football. Quite fundamental really. His positional sense is comical at times. Don't get me wrong, the lad lacks nothing in commitment, and now and again he'll breeze past someone then swing in a lovely cross. The problem is it is not the norm from him. Put it this way, if that is the level we are now accepting then we have been truly dumbed to **** by this regime. I can go back through our left backs over the last 15-20 years and he is near the bottom of the pile.

Enrique, Santon, Domi, Beresford, Elliott, Dummett, Bernard - even bloody PVA. Fair enough though he is still better than Stimson was

Willo/Dummett? Dummy is much better with the ball. He is quicker. He is more agile and better on the turn. He is better at attacking set pieces. Don't get me wrong here, if Dummett or Willo is the level of centre back we are now content with then **** me, we've seriously lost our way. Dummett is maybe good enough to be your 4th choice at this level. Willo isn't even good enough to play at this level. A couple of years ago he just about got away with it. At 31 an already poor level is dropping off. To say we need a centre back is the understatement of the century. Colo isn't as good as he used to be. Our defensive options are rancid. There is only Janmaat and Colo good enough for a team aspiring to be top 10 in the PL, and Colo is borderline. Maybe Santon on good form. Really though the defence is crying out for some quality.

I'm not having a go at Willo either. He is what he is and he gives it everything. He is just incredibly limited. Being good in the air (which he also has his troubles with) is just not enough.

 

Now you are talking ****e!

 

I didn't say Domi was good , just better than Haidara. PVA too, not great but still better than Haidara. At least the ****ers could control a football. Kind of a minimum requirement when playing...er...football.

 

Agree the defence is the major area of concern. I think fullbacks have to be good ball-players, quick and also have good positional play. We are severely limited in this respect. Out of the ones we have I would also go for Janmaat and Santon, While the latter has some defensive frailties he is the best going forward although does get a bit predictable when always cutting in from left. Dummett to me isn't a full-back - his distribution is poor, but I do think he makes a better centre-back partnership with Coloccini. Williamson, while good in patches, seems to unsettle the back-four (and most of the crowd) and also leads to loss of possession with numerous lofted balls from the back.
I thought some of the best football we played this season was when we had Dummett and Coloccini together, with Abeid and Colback protecting them and picking up the 2nd ball coming off the centre-backs and moving it quickly to a roaming Sissoko et al.

 

Ideally Saylor would have kept himself fit but I do think Dummy is next best. There is no doubt in my mind that our best XI is as follows:

Krul

Janmaat
Santon
Colo
Dummett

Abeid
Colback

Obertan
Sissoko
Aarons

Perez

Cisse, Anita, Tiote, Cabella, SDJ, Riviere, Elliott (I'm not bothering to put defensive cover on the bench, they're all ****e - Anita and Tiote will just have to cover it)

 

Yep no problems with this. If Obertan reverts to type on his return from injury may need to replace with SDJ but I wouldn't change anything else. If Tiote is going to be sold quickly plough that money back into a centre-back.