Decent article form WOL. I like the idea of playing three centre backs with Declan & Fabio on the flanks. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/paul-trollopes-cardiff-city-tray-11348361
No problem with 3 cb's but not sure about the continued fascination with Declan. He didn't get games with us and didn't set the world alight on loan for a reason. Perhaps he's just not good enough? Having been part of our squad for 3 years or so then if he was up to it then it would have shone through. I'm all for giving home grown youngsters a chance - if only for the fact that it can save us a lot of money. However we only see what we see on match days. The management, whoever they may be, see them in training and have all their performance stats. Declan has had his chances and, for me, he has not performed at the level we need on more than the odd occasion. As ever I will be delighted to be proven wrong.
I lost interest in the article when it declared Manga the best of our cb's. On what planet is he a better player than Connolly? Matt is a different class in terms of dependability, form and fitness. Manga has had individual matches where he's made more mistakes than Connolly has in the last 2 seasons! With regards to the formation, we could play 3 cb's with Manga, Connolly and Morrison looking a decent and mobile 3. Tbh I think Manga will move on this summer anyway but Peltier could easily slot into a 3. It's in front of that I'd start to wonder. Malone and Fabio would make it a back 5. Declan has failed to inspire at L1 level, why is he the answer for a side that wants to be PL in 1 season? If we bought him in based on his record and made him first team there be a riot with the club being correctly questioned for choosing someone with such an average record to date! I guess the 3 man mid would suit Whits with Okeef and Ralls the obvious choices with him but where does that leave Noone and Pilks? I ultimately have agree with Nin that Pilks isn't a front man. He started well but ultimately was show up as a player not experienced in that role. So no obvious role for our 2 best attacking weapons unless you play one of them off a striker. Noone has always failed to inspire me in any position other than on the wing. I'd be more inclined to look at a 4-2-3-1, which suits our squad pretty perfectly imo.
Peltier may be not very adept on getting up the flank to support the winger but he is probably one of the best defensive fullbacks in the league.
Agreed on that Nin. A bit like McNuggs, very few get past him. McNuggs got forward more but the end product was rarely good. I don't think Peltier would be ideal with 3 cb's where the full backs have to act as wingers. Great for Fabio though.
The three CB thing isn't as straightforward as just sitting 3 in there in the middle at the back - the old centre half sweeper position went out with the likes of Bobby Moore and Beckenbauer way back. I think the current thinking was developed in Germany more recently with essentially 2 centre backs and what I think they called a "libero" playing between them. The libero's job is to get forward to support the midfield when going forward but always being aware that he was to snuff out anything that got past the two centre backs in a similar way as the old sweeper. You need a hell of a player to fulfill that role and I don't think we've got one in that bracket. Manga would probably be the pick of what we've got for the job - he does have pace and can play the ball at his feet. If he goes and no one of that type comes in, forget it. Another thing, If we just strung 3 across the back and played both Fabio and Declan out wide it would certainly be exciting to watch but I fear we'd need two goalkeepers on the pitch.
