I'm playing devil's advocate here; If we only play one up front to smother the oppositions midfield, it means that at least two of their back four have nobody to mark, giving them free rein to get another two bodies against our five in midfield. We are then outnumbered! I realise that would make midfield so congested that maybe it benefits neither side. Which is why for most games, but not all of them, I would prefer a flexible 4-3-3. What about the rest of you?
"Some of the most succesful teams play with 1 striker" but we dont have RVP or Suarez or even Michu at Swansea. The other difference with these 1 striker teams is the have wide players who get in the box and score goals and they also get goals from the rest of the midfield. We have a lone striker who goes looking for the ball and Anderson is the only midfielder of the 5 who tries to get forward when he can. This is why we need 2 strikers so we always have at least 1 striker in the box. Its a joke when stear is putting crosses in to the box when there isnt a single red shirt in it. One up front only works when u have the players and we dont have the midfielders, wide players or striker to make it works
He may opt for safety first early in the game - too often under McInness we would be stuffed by half-time Alternatively he may think that Baldock/Davies/Adomah are fresh, so one of them may start The thing i like about SoD is that he will have a plan to deal with Boro specifically
Match stats for the Brighton game, according to BBC: Possession: 67% 33% Shots: 13 0 On Target: 8 0 In my mind SOD set up the team extremely well and we can count ourselves as unlucky to have not picked up at least two more points over the last two games. To a point, we need to be gambling a bit and going for wins, but being reckless could put us out of the fight altogether. Our defence has been what's killed us so far this season and SOD's largely been able to fix that in a short space of time - for me, he deserves nothing but praise for the job he's done so far.
If we play only 1 striker then it must be Davies or Baldock and not Jon Stead. No one is doubting Steady's work rate but on his own he will not score the goals we need to take us to safety. We cannot afford another timid 0-0 draw as all the teams around seem to be winning with some regularity of late, we need to join this band to excert the pressure on the teams in the 40-44 point bracket, then we will see some teams bottle (or lack of) come through, and hopefully our previous experience in these battles will stand us in good stead!
