I don't want to get into the whole player manager debate as it's not who I am, what I have done is come up with my team for Northampton and give the reasons why. Football in it's simplest form has 2 elements, attacking and defending, OK. that sounds easy so far but where are we going astray? (IMHO) when we are in possession it's all to slow, yes the pretty passing football is nice to watch but we're so slow getting it forward that the opposition have ten men assembled between us and the goal, even Arsenal have started winning since copying the United style of long diagonal ball's in behind the defenders (yes having the speed of Walcott and van Persie helps). Unfortunately to have any chance of succeeding in this requires speed on the wings, something we haven't seen for a while. Because we play our full backs almost as wing backs (not fast enough to be proper wing backs) it leaves us very exposed down our flanks, our full backs are caught up field and haven't the speed to keep up with a nippy winger. So having analysed our failings as a team, not singling out individuals for criticism I look at Northampton and see what we have to play against. Northampton are always big and physical and with Adebayo they have a large physical target man who we will need to keep out of the game. With the above in mind, Richards who likes the physical game should be the man to mark Ade as the centre of a back 3, yes I did say 3, Frampton playing left and Lawrence on the right. To give our midfield a bit of zip I would go with Nouble and Oli “yes Oli” on the wing to give us the speed that defenders hate, (I know some will wonder about my sanity going with Oli but who was playing on the wing in our last promotion squad) I would finish the 5 man midfield with Wheldale, Lee, Rooney, all of these could support/feed the front 2 when required and Lee has defensive qualities when needed. Kuffour and Kedwell up front would finish my selection of a team I believe could defeat Northampton comfortably, I look forward to other posters giving me their selections and the rationale behind them.
I too think a 3-5-2 formation would be best with the squad we have. Well at least I did up until I saw how we played with a 5 man midfield earlier this season when the players seemed to be afraid to take responsibility and leave things for others to do. Now i'm not so sure if it'll work. I think having 2 up top would make it work better as all too often Kedwell was isolated when we played 451. I'd be happy to see us line up as you say. Although not sure about Oli. Really can't see it. Maybe in a week or 2 when J Payne is back and we can stick one of the 3 others you mention out wide.
Grumpy In a previous thread I too stated that we are too slow to pass & move ( except in the pre-match warm up ) I also said that at the start of this season we were passing ( & moving ) very sweetly. I don't understand why THAT has gone wrong. As you say - Gills don't have genuine pace to employ wingers - so ( IMHO ) we need to pass & move our way forward much more quickly -as we don't have the quality of Barcelona - who CAN overcome an 11 man goal line ! One thing that worries me about the back 3 that you propose - they would be slaughtered by the nippy wingers that other teams tend to have. I've only missed a couple of games all season - and can tell you that we have really struggled against pace. Quite a few of us have said that Gills have players with enough quality to gain automatic promotion - They players need to be playing up to their individual and collective strengths. UTG
Now for my tatical genius input - lol I think alwaysright is right! That if you only have three at the back, the likes of Frampton & Lawrence could get slaughtered. It will be no problem if they catch the little blighter but it might be catching him that is the problem. Same for the Gills, which is why I want the likes of Rooney testing the opposition back line. We let Barcham go, well in truth he probably wanted something better and who can blame him, however, when we did have his pace down the left, did he get the delivery, er I think not! Lost count last season of the amount of times I sat in the Medway Stand listening to Barcham screaming for the ball in front of us, with no delivery. One week we have Nouble doing well on the left the following week we have him on the right. Did some one mention Oli? FFS! Do you realise it has taken me over 12 hours to respond, just so I can recover from the shock of the suggestion. Tell you want though grumpy, if Hessy takes your advice, chances are the fans might lynch him, although if he pulls it off, grumpy will be the pure genius.
Personally, I feel lately that if you are struggling with a lack of width, don't try to incorporate it! Team for Northampton? How about we give this a little go? Flitney Richards Lawrence Frampton Fish Martin/Jackman Lee Montrose Rooney Nouble Kuffour SUBS:- Gazzaniga Martin/Jackman Weston Whelpdale Kedwell I feel the above could be a starting formation, but with the players on show there are many different areas in which this could be changed depending on the state of the game. Give Rooney a free role, allow Martin and Fish to go forward a little more, and get either Lee or Montrose to be the primary holding player for when the full backs do push on. At any point, you could revert to a 4-4-2 by bringing on Kedwell or Whelpdale, and switching any of Nouble, Whelpdale or Rooney to either wing where I'm sure they are all reasonably comfortable. Thoughts? Feel free to shoot me down if that's what it takes!
