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.
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.
