Idea for reshaping the team

[Northern Canary 0]

I have been thinking about the best formation and lineup for the team at the moment and this is what i feel we should try.

                                  Gallagher

Colin              Fleming               Shackell                  Drur

Croft                Safri                    Etuhu                     Eagle

                     Earnshaw/Dublin         Huckerby

I have decided on a few things that we need to focus on:
 
-Using both wings of the pitch aswel as the centre. At the moment we rarely break forward down the middle, and our attacks through huckerby and croft are two predictable. We rely on them too much and other teams can see this and so they block us out down the wings. We need to partner Etuhu with a defensive player so Etuhu can power forward and support the attack. If we can pass it around the midfield and open more attacking options then other teams wont be able to close off our attack like they can at the moment.

-Moving Huckerby up front so he does not have to support the whole left side, which could give him more freedom to cause havoc. This worked very well in the promotion season. I think the team needs balance which Huckerby doesnt bring on the left. Huckerby likes to attack defenders, but cannot take on 5 or 6. Therefore i think he needs to start further up the pitch so he can get into scoring positions more. It will also mean we are less exposed down the left every time he attacks. Having two upfront would be a lot better than playing one up front as we are doing now. Earnshaw and Dublin need support depending on who is playing, so why not try it out with Huckerby up there. It worked very well when he partnered Roberts.

- Should Doherty be in the team anymore? To be honest i dont rate him at all. Every time i have seen him, including today, he looks clumsy, outpaced and not very good on the ball.

- We need a lot more space to pass it around in the midfield. Players like Robinson and Hughes play too similar roles and only pass it short to each other. We need players wide, making runs down the centre. dropping back etc etc.

- Signings. The team atm is nowhere near good enough. If we are to improve i think we need a new centre back to partner Shackell and a new central midfielder who is creative and offers more down the centre. I dont think Etuhu gets forward anywhere near as much as he should and we need a good passer of the ball to operate the midfield. The other signings should come more as cover, our squad is too small and as we have seen today, we cannot cope without our key players.

[Cluck 0]

I admire your positivity.....but do you really think this shower could cope in any formation.......other than an untidy queue at the dole office door?

[ron obvious 1,502]

I like the sound of this formation. The first time I saw Huckerby was at the end of MOTD years ago, when Coventry were playing some other loser team. On my to the "off" switch I stopped,  my mouth opening wide, as this mullet-haired bloke tore through the opposition defence like it wasn''t there; even when they tried kicking lumps out of him he just kept going. Bloody Hell, I thought, this guy could beat any defence in the WORLD. I went to bed happy in the knowledge that England finally had a fantastic new forward, someone who could genuinely attack the opposition & put the fear of God up ''em. Sadly it was not to be.

Anyway, if Eagle contiues to show the promise he did last week, this would finally allow Hux the freedom to rampage against defences, switching from left to right, giving them no peace. This, to me, is his natural game.

A new centre back is deperately needed.

 

[Northern Canary 0]

No but i think this could do better than the others we have used.

[macdougalls perm 0]

I wholeheartedly agree with this NC, with Eagle playing on the left we could set Huckerby free to play across the field behind Earnie. I think this could be a devastating attacking formation. And Hucks wouldn''t need to waste his energy tracking back to the extent that he does in his present role. I hope you''re reading this Peter Grant [;)] 

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

I think your points are valid NC. I would prefer to see Hucks up front especially.

[Two Tails 0]

Hucks is rubbish up front to be fair, his best position is out wide left, anywhere else on the pitch is just a waste of time.

[alex_ncfc 662]

Am I the first one to say WTF Fleming?! Christ! He shouldn''t even be on the bench. Fine, have him as club captain and let him show new signings around the area, but good enough for this level he is NOT anymore, and the Doc has been our best defender for 18 months now, so what on earth are you thinking?

[Salopian 1]

I agree, NC,- I have my concerns about Doherty, although he gives his all, but I still think that our main lack is, and has been for some time, a creative central midfielder, as an outlet to the wings or to the strikers. If Hux on return is double marked as usual, this should create gaps for someone to exploit. Hendrie was a class act yesterday, and we could do with someone like him!Our midfield do not operate as a highly mobile passing unit, and apart from Etuhu''s fine goal, they seem to act like a rather immobile passing line, pretty to watch but getting where? Perhaps the return of Safri would bolster their defensive power, but they have seemed as a collective unit not creative and not a serious defensive block.The next priority, apart from covring positions where we are weak, (L.B., R.W.) must surely be to find a quick striker, not one of the ponderous ones that the previous manager was looking at. It is good to have Hux up front, as you suggest, but he is perhaps a "10 a season" scorer, and Ernie can''t be expected to score all the rest, even if he does improve on his recent rate of converting chances to goals.

[E I E I E I O 0]

Fleming your having a laugh! This bloke is drawing a wage for nothing I could do as good a job for a tenth the money!

[Cluck 0]

The best thing that could shape this squad is a chainsaw..........

[Huddy 0]

Anythings worth a go the way we have played in our last 2 games and i have thought of this sort of thing before. Anyway of having Hucks at his best without being subjected to Thorne, Ryan J and Dublin must be worth a go!

[Northern Canary 0]

I have to admit Fleming shouldnt be there. I was focussing more on the midfield and attack. I still think Doherty needs to be replaced in January.

[ZLF 274]

We do need to get back to a 4-4-2 and Grant has to do what worthy couldnt - which is fit Hux into a team without cauing us more problems than our opponents.

I disagree that Hux isnt any good as a striker - he will never be a prolific goalscorer but he is most dangerous near the opponents goal, give him the ball closer to it than our goal and leave him to forget about defending - he will score and more importantly continue to create.

I agree with another poster on another thread who commented that our midfield is our main problem - we have to play three in the middle because 2 cant do the job.  There is a caveat though - I feel that the 2 cant doa job only because we have two talented wide players who cannot defend as a midfielder should; their attacking instincts mean we leave gaps out wide (our problem last season too) which our central midfielders are unable to cover, without leaving a gap in the middle;  its the same whether its 2 or 3 central midfielders,  they simply cant plug the gaps left behind.

For me I would look to move to 4-4-(1-1) where hux is one of the 1s up front, given a free role to roam where he will naturally drift to the left and cut in onto his right a la henry (remember how nondescript and lightweight Henry was as a left winger?)  With Earnie doing the lone striker bit OK he seems more likely to be able to cope with a roaming Hux than Ashton, who needed a close at hand partner to function best.

Having shifted Hux up front Grants challenge remains to find a full complement of 4 midfielders... whether they will arrive before next summer is a key challenge for the manager.

I do not think that there is much wrong with a back four of Colin, Doc, Shacks and Drury that some decent protection front of them wouldnt cure.  More cover is essential, in all defensive positions, as Flem does not work with either doc or shax.

 

 

 

[sts 0]

Zipper - worthington has gone - you need to change your avatar

[avid_canary 0]

My thoughts on team:

We need to decide who is our best player and who we are going to build our team round.  Earnie or Hux?  And who we need to bring in to compliment them.

Midfield currently has 3 doing a job 2 should do.  Dickson needs to be the box to box player we bought to replace Francis.   

 

 

[ZLF 274]

Thats odd - I haventhad that one for about 12 weeks - I deleted my flaming pheonix last night because it never loaded properly.  Will remove it now! 

[Northern Canary 0]

Looks like thats the team he went for last night then pretty much.