Ruddy Martin Bennett Turner Olsson Howson Johnson Fer Elmander Hooper Hoolahan I think that's true, Rob, but I don't see Elmander and Hoolahan playing out wide, (the overlapping FBs would do that) and Johnson sitting in front of the defence would enable that. The key would be Fer and Howson pushing forward to support a more fluid front line to make life more difficult for the Palace defenders. I suspect Palace are going to pack their defence and this kind of formation would be better at breaking that down, while still having enough cover for Palace breaks.
I think much more interesting after the Becchio comments. Is there a serious problem of squad unity and spirit at the club? As we aren't privy to what goes on behind closed doors, we can only speculate about this. But if we lose tamely to this Palace team, I'd say the likelihood is yes.
More seriously, you would not expect the current City dressing room to bear much resemblance to the dressing room when CH took over. That group of players had a togetherness owed to a combination of continuous success and few changes in personnel. (Lambert himself has a history of creating as much division as unity -- ask Mikey about Lambert's Colchester days, or Darren Bent about his, Bent's, last year at Villa.) Now we are in the middle of a period of rebuilding, with comings and goings, new characters, no shared experience etc. etc. It is as ridiculous to attribute any and every "problem" in the dressing room, real or imaginary, to the management team, as it is to attribute to them every perceived "problem" on the pitch.
VERY well said Robbie!!! I would also like to ask ALL fans going to CR tomorrow to just get behind the team and the manager, whatever the score and however we play!!! If you want to moan/boo/sound off etc, then do it on here after the game!!!!
These are professional players who know what the game is about. I have yet to see any player suggest any sign of lack of cohesion in the squad. Becchio is obviously disappointed, but you have to earn your right to play in a PL team. Some have criticised CH for being 'too nice'. Should he include Becchio over a player he rates more highly because he feels sorry for him? I'd say no, as the club is more important than any individual. The injuries are a blow, but it's good to see how strong the options are for the Palace game in spite of that. This is the deepest squad that I can ever remember in over 40 years of watching City and there's still room to improve it in January. Like JR, I just hope the yellow army doesn't let itself and the team down tomorrow. A bit of Dunkirk spirit would go a long way.
To be honest Rick, Maybe Becchio does deserve a go? The new forwards that have been brought in over the summer have hardly been banging them in. I don't see him in training though maybe he is simply not good enough or showing enough in training to convince CH? I think he was brought in as a bit of panic buy in January of last season due to the fact that we have the same problem as now, we struggle to score. Not sure it is a problem with the strikers though.
some sensible points. when hooper and elmander are on the pitch, he's on the bench as the only other forward
Seems a lot of teams are struggling this season. I see Osvaldo at Saints (though they have other players regulalry on the score sheet), Michu or Benteke are all finding it much harder to score this season
There have been several references to that in the media. If true, to me it implies that the value of a clean sheet has risen correspondingly and consequently the priority should once again be not conceding (however unpopular that may be with the general run of fans).
I think I'm less worried about the strikers' scoring rate because of the injuries they've had. Fortunately, these haven't coincided in that only one of RvW, Hooper, Elmander or Becchio have been out at one time (unlike the current injuries to 3 out of 4 wide players). I seem to recall the doomsayers under Lambert complained that City weren't getting enough goals from midfield. Under CH, the midfield has provided 7 out of the 10 goals scored. Howson and Fer are joint leading scorers and I don't see anything wrong with that. With teams like Hull, Cardiff and Palace (and others) looking to pack their defence in away games, having a diversified scoring threat is an advantage.
Totally agree with this!!! I seem to remember that last season, Bassong scored a couple, Whittaker scored against Swansea and Snoddy weighed in with a few from free kicks. More please this season!!!!
Whittaker is the only defensive scorer so far this season, with RvW and Hooper getting the other two.
Fixed that for you... In general I agree that having goals from midfield is a bonus, but I don't think we've got much of a balance in that respect so far. We've scored 10 goals, and of those only 2 from strikers, one of which came from the spot. We have got some very good strikers, and I'd rather we sorted the service to them and let them do the bulk of the scoring rather than relying on the midfield to carry the goalscoring threat because we're not capable of feeding our strikers.
Why on earth would you rather the "strikers" did the bulk of the scoring? Indeed, do many teams nowadays really play with "strikers"? Are Arsenal somehow failing because the majority of their goals come from Ramsey, Walcott, Wilshere, Cazorla, Mertesacker rather than their strikers (of which they really only have one, namely Giroud)? I don't get it at all. It's a team game; doesn't matter where the goals come from, or who is involved in not conceding. The "strikers" are not there just to be "fed", they are there to score when they get the opportunity and create for others whenever they can. Why don't we just drop this antiquated pigeon-holeing? And while we are at it, we should also get it out of our heads that forward players play either centrally or wide. (Remember all the comments we used to get to the effect that Holt should just stay in the centre and never move out wide!) Did Thierry Henry stay lurking on the penalty spot? The modern game is all about lateral movement of players and fluidity, not rigid formations.
I remember on at least 2 occasions Holt putting in an inch perfect cross for Morison to score and I agree, thst as long as we're getting goals, it doesn't matter who's scoring them.
