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Christoph Stiepermann

Four-Four **ing Two!

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Two strikers offering a threat, balance on the wings with one pace option and one hard worker, no Gilmour or McLean ghosting around in CM..

Has Smith finally cracked it? 

We looked better on wednesday against a very big, fast West Ham who were always going to give us problems and we look very decent today. I like this formation and line up for us, it suits our pressing game and gives us a threat upfront unlike the 3 man midfield which I hasn't worked for us all season. 

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Both teams are playing 4-4-2. I know it feels like 10 years ago since we last won but this is a genuine throwback. 
 

The 4-4-2 has its positives and weaknesses, but having Idah on-it with his hold up play up top has been as asset. 
 

Also, the intensity I’m which we’ve won the ball back and carried it forwards has been the difference maker. That’s the “Dean Smith way” when it works. The crowd loves the tempo of a fighting turnover, we always have done at Carrow Road. 
 

I hope we can keep this up! More goals in this game for sure.  Let’s see how the second half goes. 

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Credit to Dean Smith for starting with three strikers and a winger, would have been easy for him to have caved in and tried to park the bus and nick one, but no one can say he isn't trying to win games.

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Whatever it is, we looked slightly less useless on Wednesday and a lot less useless today.

Dean's found something that seems to be working. Let's hope we stick with it and continue to make it work better.

Huge game on Friday.

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31 minutes ago, Petriix said:

It's a 4-2-3-1 with Idah at number 10.

It was definitely this. Pukki and Idah occasionally swapped roles, but it was definitely 4-2-3-1.

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9 minutes ago, Unhinged Canary said:

Whatever it is, we looked slightly less useless on Wednesday and a lot less useless today.

Dean's found something that seems to be working. Let's hope we stick with it and continue to make it work better.

Huge game on Friday.

If we are inferior in our playing ability, then we have to try and gain an advantage. Keeping the ball away from our goal is the first step and it spent a lot of time in their half today even if it wasn't Farkeball.

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I think it was fairly fluid - I thought it was a 4231 c-um 433,  but felt like 9-0-1 or 10-0-0 at times!

 

Edited by Branston Pickle

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Actually it was not very clear what the formation was at times, Sargent was all over the park and players swapping positions constantly, I actually wonder if the zonal marking was dumped?

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Players popping up all over the place. Puking and idah switching it up, sideshow and milot.  Perhaps we are channelling Ragnick and the 4-2-2-2. Either way the flower pot man will tell us we had ten outfield players in no particular structure and somehow won. Long may it continue. 

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It’s an interesting one this isn’t it… ‘wingers’ have always pushed up, and usually one of two strikers in the old system would withdraw a bit and find the space in the hole … I would guess that having Sorensen sit and Lees-Melou get forward more would suggest it wasn’t a two in the way you’d usually see in a 4231, but I wasn’t at the game so don’t really know lol …

I was just reflecting whilst making my cup of tea after watching the match of the day highlights (and yes clumsy ‘joke’ about Idah’s name but otherwise better reportage than we usually get I thought)… I was just thinking about what always seemed to me to be the key difference between Farke and Lambert -the two most successful managers in my time as a fan..

Farke  had a system and the players had to fit to it… it took a while to work until he got and trained up the players to be able to work his system…

When Lambert came he worked out what system his players could deliver and took it from there …

is this what Smith has done / is doing?  Round legs in round holes etc eg Lees Melou looking like a proper midfielder as the advanced one of a central pair …

if so I might start to feel ‘hope’ again - something which felt pretty much extinguished after my trip to the Valley last weekend …

Feels like there’s an awful lot riding on that Watford game eh ? 

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17 hours ago, Petriix said:

It's a 4-2-3-1 with Idah at number 10.

What on earth were you looking at? 

Idah was far from number 10. That was the small tweak that was so massive. In previous games when Idah and Pukki have played up front, Idah has tried to support Pukki. The change was that Idah took the main striker role and he was excellently supported by Pukki.

Teemu looked absolutely knackered at the end of the game because of all the extra work he was doing helping to support the midfield and link up with Adam. Teemu is a very intelligent footballer whose main weakness is his aerial power. He is much better suited to this role in an SAS team

We've been crying out for a number 10 for years, we had one all along and now we have a forceful striker who he can work with.

Well done Smith and Shakespeare, this small change has made all the difference.

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On 16/01/2022 at 11:01, Yellow Wal said:

What on earth were you looking at? 

Idah was far from number 10. That was the small tweak that was so massive. In previous games when Idah and Pukki have played up front, Idah has tried to support Pukki. The change was that Idah took the main striker role and he was excellently supported by Pukki.

Teemu looked absolutely knackered at the end of the game because of all the extra work he was doing helping to support the midfield and link up with Adam. Teemu is a very intelligent footballer whose main weakness is his aerial power. He is much better suited to this role in an SAS team

We've been crying out for a number 10 for years, we had one all along and now we have a forceful striker who he can work with.

Well done Smith and Shakespeare, this small change has made all the difference.

That was the original plan when Pukki arrived, playing off Rhodes in a flexible role, pulling defenders out of position. He started scoring goals though and evolved into the lone striker role which worked well in the Championship, but less well in the PL. With Idah, the roles are more flexible but effective all the same.

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On 16/01/2022 at 11:01, Yellow Wal said:

What on earth were you looking at? 

Idah was far from number 10. That was the small tweak that was so massive. In previous games when Idah and Pukki have played up front, Idah has tried to support Pukki. The change was that Idah took the main striker role and he was excellently supported by Pukki.

Teemu looked absolutely knackered at the end of the game because of all the extra work he was doing helping to support the midfield and link up with Adam. Teemu is a very intelligent footballer whose main weakness is his aerial power. He is much better suited to this role in an SAS team

We've been crying out for a number 10 for years, we had one all along and now we have a forceful striker who he can work with.

Well done Smith and Shakespeare, this small change has made all the difference.

Agreed re. Pukki but he this was as 442 as you'll get in the modern game. Teemu wasn't in a Stiepermann type role but Idah wasn't anything other than an out and out no. 9.

Edited by Worthy Nigelton

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Was going to say, Stiepermann was very much the number 10 in that first Champs-winning season under Farke, he just played it rather differently. Usually your number 10 looks to be up with the striker or nearby, but Stieps dropped ten yards, would pick a ball up on the half-turn and start rumbling forward, looking for a pass to hit.

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It’s a good feeling knowing a keeper is strong. I’m very tense about this game now. Comest the hour? Oh for the days when one looked down and saw Chrissie Woods, or a Greeno, Ruddy. Old Big head was right, you built from the back. 

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