From what i've seen so far Kirchhoff is making the DM slot his own and way better than Catts, for me he's on the bench as back-up. M'Vila is streets ahead of any of our midfielders and drops deep to cover also, that leave two to drive forward. Jon if fit/free and i'd stick with Lens, e offers more than Borini.
See now we're talking about putting wide men and strikers into CM. They'll be plenty of games where an AM is not the right way to go. where a DM and two conventional CM are order of the day. We either have to patch it up by playing players well out of position or we can't play with the right shape for the opponent. It's not a good position to be in when we're 4 points cut off. We're only going one way imo. Proper doomed. The squad lacks the quality and depth to stay in this league. At least it will be more entertaining with the players we brought in. But we are doomed I'm convinced. Just don't have the squad to stay up.
Have to disagree mate, there's life in the old dog yet. Agreed we feel, short in the window but i'm not going to pin that on Sam or Short and before you say it, NO, i'm not a fan of Short either. Sometimes things go on behind the scenes that we don't find out about so we end up guessing and invariably pin there blame on the owner. We're hardly an attractive prospect to any potential signing are we.
I think we have the players to play a similar system to Spurs. ------------------Pickford---------------- Yedlin-------Kone-----JOS--------PVA ------------Kirchhoff---M'Vila----------- AJ---------------Khazri-----------Borini ------------------Defoe-------------------- The two full backs have licence to get up and down the wing. Kirchhoff plays the "Dier" role, slotting into a 3man defence when the full backs push on. M'Vila is our "Dembele", helping out defensively and pushing forward when possible. The rest is self explanatory. Everything I'd read suggested Khazri's best position was in a free creative role just behind the striker, similar to Eriksen for spurs. AJ / Borini / Lens / Watmore are interchangeable. Catts on the bench to play either Kirchhoff's or M'Vila's role if needs be. I really think this formation and tactic suits our players the best by far - both our full backs are better gong forward than defensively, and Kirchhoff is a CB-cum-DM, just like Dier. Spurs have shown it works. It's a no-brainer to me.
Why not? Virtually very footballer in the world wants to play here. It's the most watched league in the world, it's the best paid league in the world, we've got world class facilities and a world class stadium. Even with 15 games remaining and a relegation clause to be allowed to leave. Players from all over the world would be falling over themselves just to be given the chance to play here. For them they're praying for a club to actually come in for them. Where as for us, the only obstacle preventing us imo is Money. Look at the quality signed to teams in the bottom half this season. Virtually everyone wants to play this league. It all comes down to money mate. The game has been heading this way for decades and now it's taken hold and is established. We had two choices, accept it like everyone else is and invest. We chose to fight it now we have a poor squad full of holes with isolated patches of quality who we've got to rely on to pull off a mirricle. Talk about putting all our eggs in one basket. We're the epitome of that imo. I'm ashamed of how far our club is dragging me down at the moment. Our transfer activity, the league position, the school yard tactics and playing for draws against teams we can bloody beat. It's just got me rock bottom.
That right hand side scares the **** out of me. Defensively it's as weak as we've tried all season and we've shipped goals like no bodies business from that side. That right hand side isn't good enough for this league imo. With such a fine line on how many points we can now drop I don't think that set up would save us. Then there's the problem of one system for all. Rarely works. That said Keeping Khazri and Borini fixed on their side with AJ in the middle I think would work in the right matches. But likely not all. It's a matter of Workrate and AJ just doesn't have it. Plus he won't be available shortly.
Here's a wild suggestion. Could Cattermole do a job at right back? I've previously thought Larsson could and Colback always did a decentjob at left back and probably had his best game for us playing right back at home to Everton
Agreed, money talks but we aren't in the same position as other clubs due to previous spending on **** below par players that are still to this day sapping our wage bill. For instance Fletcher, i read somewhere that we are funding part of his wages, same for Graham, how ****e is that? Plus you've got the geographical problem, they simply don't want to come to a struggling team in this neck of the woods. That's fact and has been stated by many previous managers.
My whole point is we should have broken the wage structure. The fine would be a small amount to pay in comparison to the money saved by staying up. That's if we even qualifiey for a fine, we haven't yet despite having a wage bill above the ffp limit We'll have to agree to disagree on this one fella. We managed to sign Kone and Khazri who look well up to the standard from this bleak position, we stopped short imo. Damage was done in the summer anyway. Chances of surviving were hanging by a thread after Decembers fixtures.
I'm in full agreement with this one, we should have a had a quality RB coming in for sure. My point was that it's not always as black and white as what we fans assume it is. According to Sam we were in for Debuchy but he chose not to come and others too, so do we break the bank and offer silly money to entice some payday bandit who only came for the money? ie: another Fletcher cos he's ponced about playing with his thatch and done **** all but raping the club in the process.
No, but O'shea is familiar with the role, stick him out there and play Wes alongside Kone, assuming Kaboul is still injured. If not then Kaboul, Kone with JOS in at right back.
Aye but that's why you have Jan drop back into CB and either Kone or JOS move out to the right. Am not saying it's a perfect system but I think, with the players we have, it's the best we can do against the teams in an d around us
Not a bad shout only problem is he is slower then molasses , id rather us play 3-5-2 . Now that we have a much stronger midfield 3, Kirchoff , Mvilla and take your pick depending on opposition and Catts/Larson/AJ?/Lens. This would let us take advantage of Ndoye as well
That would work as well mate, but for a straight 4-4-2 i'd be inclined to play either Yedlin or JOS at RB, Jones is a liability at the minute and costing us valuable points.
Yedlin over Jos all day mate, he's just too slow to play out wide. Saying that Jones is not the quickest, but i think everyone agrees he isnt the answer. Christ Wonder how much Bardsley would cost hahaha
Three at the back for me with Yedlin and PVA as wing backs with M'villa and Jan central,the remaining three are problematic, Defoe and N'Doye up front maybe, with a wild card like Lens or Kharzi given licence to play across the width of the pitch.
