I wasn't anticipating complacency in defence. For them a clean sheet is akin to scoring, its an area I think most of us are comfortable in the team. Lets hope those who are supposed to do the opposite do the business.
I havent seen them this year but Sterling reckons theyve got no midfield to speak of. Should be a cake walk if hes correct.
Think it will all depend on city's approach on Saturday, start with a slow tempo, it will give MK a bit of hope, we need to be at them from the word go to me the next two home game's are massive in terms of defining the season.
To advocate changing our defence - a strength - to three at the back is just plain daft. If we were not creating chances then it would be worth looking at but our problem recently has been in not putting away the many chances we've created. That's a confidence/rub of the green issue & will not be solved by a formation change. Huddlestone and Diame in the same team is a big risk - they both lack mobility & Diame, in particular, gives the ball away too easily & fails to put in the effort to win it back. Too many posters are treating MK Dons as an easy game - there is no such thing in the Championship. We should be treating this game the same as if we were playing Middlesbrough.
We always go through these spells of not scoring and we always say it'll sort itself out when the strikers start finishing them. It never does though. Something will need to change for us to start scoring again. See my previous post for a full explanation of why Diame in midfield isn't a risk in the slightest.
Well judging from what we saw at their place, they play Diego Poyet as a holding midfielder and Jake Forster-Caskey (an u21 international) as their 'Livermore'. Neither are THAT good, it's their forwards that are better. Josh Murphy and Rob Hall are both really pacey so our lads are going to have to keep them underwraps, most of their play comes through Murphy so he's the one to shut down. They'll probably chuck on JET at some point. Note: Must be properly policed. Must not, repeat not turn into an all night rave.
Poyet isn't there anymore, he's on-loan at Charlton, played for them when we tonked them 6-0. I thought MK Dons were alright on the ball at their place, and both wingers carried a threat. Off the ball they were disastrous. They were wide open and if we'd had any quality about us that day it would have been a similar scoreline to the Charlton game.
We need pace and aggression on both wings. Switch Snodgrass to the LW in place of Clucas and put Elmo back on RW for his pace, crossing ability, and strength in the air. Powell showed me nothing today other than two good FKs in the first half. He was shocking in the second half and appears to have no awareness of other players runs into space, Odubajos wide open run into the box on the left was a prime example when we were only 1-0 down. Definitely let Akpom start with Hernandez and rest Mo. So... McGregor Odubajo Dawson Davies Robertson Elmohamedy Hayden Livermore Snodgrass Akpom Hernandez A win over MKD is a critical 3 points to bring us back in contact with Burnley who could well lose to Hudders. Another 0-0 draw would be devastating to the teams confidence. We need to push up and attack from the get go. Elmo, Snodders, and the two WB throwing caution to the winds. No slow square/back passing MF buidups. Lets do a Leicester. We have the speed. Come on Bruce...go for it!![/QUOTE] With the injury to Snodgrass (hope its minor) I'd change my original choice on LW to Clucas. Otherwise no changes. This is a must win and Bruce I hope will have them attacking at speed from the first whistle.
I did read your earlier post but that was about Diame in the Premier League pre-injury. True for then but irrelevant now.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results . Albert Einstein (the overrated fool)
Exactly! I don't want a different result. I want us to remain tight at the back & to continue to challenge for automatic promtion. If that's insanity I welcome it!
It looks like Powell is out with a hamstring strain. Told you we shouldn't be signing these older players...
Although 4-4-2 (or 4-4-1-1 if that's what it is when Diame plays) has produced a couple of stale 0-0 draws in our last two home games, it has also served us well throughout the season and has got us to the position we are now in. Maybe its personnel that need to change rather than the system. It's not as if we aren't creating the chances with the current system - we just haven't taken them in recent games.
Team news... Maloney is definitely out, as is Taylor (big loss). Powell and Snodgrass are 'hugely doubtful' (looks like Snodgrass will be out two weeks with a groin strain).
