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I would love to see Leon start against villa, and I think someone of his style of football is better suited to the ''diamond'' formation we were playing against spurs. With Bentley playing behind the front 2, it means he will be feeding balls through, and not crossing them from the wing, so the strikers need to have the speed of hucks and leon, but also leons pouchers touch. As good as doherty has been in his target man role, I think if we are going to play the diamond formation it means we need someone of leons style instead. The game against bradford was played against basically their whole team in defence and it was never a true test of a hucks-leon partnership. Obviously taking off someone with the aerial abilities of doherty means we lose something, but I think Leon can make up for that in other ways, aslong as the team plays to our strikers strengths. With Leon playing, it could mean we keep the ball down for longer periods and we''ll keep posession alot more, which seems to be the key in this league. Also, its good to see Jarvis is trying to prove himself to worthy - a goal for england u19s and 2 goals against chelsea reserves, not bad!

What are you talking about! Just because we didn''t manage to sign someone doesn''t mean the board didn''t allow him to! Worthy made it clear last week that the person he was after was Johansson from Charlton. Charlton were playing the waiting game saying "no he''s still in our plans" etc trying to get an increased bid as the deadline got nearer, but they were never going to sell unless they got their replacement first. If Ipswich had sold Bent to charlton, or Earnshaw left cardiff for Charlton (both were targets for curbishley), Johansson would be a city player. You need to realise that not everything is down to us, and unless everything is right for both clubs, the player and the agents, deals can''t be done.

I like the 1 by james, similar to Pompey''s system... Heres a similar system to how we started the 2nd half vs Arsenal...also I think Fulham and Bolton use it too? : (4-5-1 without the ball, 4-3-3 with the ball) ----------Green----------- Eddie Fleming Charlton Drury -----Francis Safri Holt------ Bentley------------Huckerby ---------Doherty----------- Maybe mcveigh instead of bentley if its too risky defensivley... Would be surprised if we started a match without 4-4-2 though, although I think this was how we were playing in malaysia and in some other pre-seasons before safri was out...

I agree with the original post, especially about Doherty - I think he''s been great with hucks! Just because he has said his original position was a defender doesn''t mean we cant keep him as a striker. Henry was a winger, Ashley Cole was a striker! Quick someone tell Wenger to stop playing them out of position! Fair enough it would''ve been nice to get 1 more striker, but just because the ones we went for were too expensive, couldn''t be replaced by their club intime, joined another team, had the wrong attitude when spoken to, didn''t want to join us or weren''t allowed to leave...doesn''t mean we''re doomed. We got a draw away to newcastle who have Shearer, Bellamy, Kluivert and Ameobi...those players cost more individually than our whole team and they still couldn''t beat us! I still believe we can finish above atleast 3 other teams, so lets get on with the job and support our team!

I can''t believe some of the rubbish I''m reading on here - I thought this was the message board where people talked sense!? Michael Owen scored 16 premiership goals last season, do you think we should''ve signed him!? We''ve scored more goals against Man utd, Newcastle and Arsenal than WBA scored against Villa, Spurs and Everton. We''ve got Mattias Jonson settling in - but when he finds his form I wouldn''t be surprised to see him starting alongside Hucks - he is an international striker for sweden and replaced larsson upfront, hardly a bad person to have in our team is it! We have David Bentley - going to be Bergkamps replacement for Arsenal, oh no we''re so unlucky! Doherty has looked great linking up with Hucks, and I bet if he was anybody else you''d be saying how great he was, but because he''s not a big fancy italian who cartwheels when he scores people are moaning. He''s done a perfect job for us so far and I dont see the problem with him being our target man when needed. We have a clever manager that doesn''t need to spend big to be better, and we have players that will give 100% to help us survive and based on our recent performances I''d say it wasn''t us that needed to be buying more players.

Worthy was after johansson, scowcroft and probably even more all summer, but their clubs either didn''t want to sell them, couldn''t find replacements, or the prices were way too high... oh no! worthy didn''t panic buy! he didnt waste the rest of our money on someone he didn''t truley believe was right! We''ve signed Bentley, Jonson and Doherty - all 3 can play as a striker.

Earnshaw, similar player to McKenzie, would he parter Huckerby? Is Kanu''s attitude the sort of player worthington would ever buy, even if he did have the money? I dont think worthington would put them in our starting line-up

Helveg - £1million Jonson - £1million Safri - £1million Bentley - £3million Doherty - £1million Charlton - £500,000 Ward - £500,000 Gallacher - £500,000 Total - £8,500,000 They are realistic prices which we could''ve paid for our players if they weren''t such crafty buys by Worthy using free''s, loans and bargain deals....would that have meant we''d be more likely to stay up??? I know I''d rather have worthy''s prices and players than WBA or Palaces overpriced players - and to be honest I dont think many of their players would even get into our squad right now. I would''ve liked the excitement of signing a new striker too, but obviously we couldn''t get one that fits Worthys criteria - but if you think we have managed to score 4 goals against Man Utd, Newcastle and Arsenal already its not exactly bad. Some people are saying ''what if the strikers get injured'' but we have enough cover for Hucks, Svensson, Doherty and McKenzie...we have Bentley, who prefers to play where hucks is...we have Jonson, who plays for sweden as a striker (scored against holland the other week). Unless there was the exact person Worthy was looking for, whats the point in getting someone he knows isn''t right. He could''ve been after several people yesterday, but their clubs couldnt find replacements in time or another team hijacked the deal...we''ll never know though.

what about 4-5-1 - with possibilty of 4-3-3/4-4-2 if hucks/mcveigh push up when we attack ----------------green---------------- Eddie---Fleming--Charlton----Drury McVeigh Francis Safri Holt Huckerby ----------------Doherty--------------

I remember seeing him play against pompey, and every time he went near the ball all their fans were on his back - like when they usually take a goal kick - but this was every time he even went near the ball - and eventually he did make mistakes! If the crowd wind him up as much as possible, there may be a chance...maybe!