Your Thought please

[The Great Drinkell 51]

I expect this is not going to be received to well but here goes......

For then next few games let''s revert to our successful formation that worked so well over the crucial Christmas period.
I wasn''t at Palace on Saturday but have seen all the games at home plus a few away this season. I have been reading the comments about our strike force and it''s current form. so let''s try Svennsson and MacKenzie up front and put Huckerby on the bench. Leon works a lot closer to the front man than Darren. He is also a natural left footer which will add balance to our forward line. Huckerby has been singled out for special attention by a couple of sides recently and seems to struggle. Can you imagine the excitment if Hucerby came on and the lift he would give the team if things needed to change (remember Mr. Nielson). I would also like to see Jarvis given a little longer to influence games if he is coming on.

My main message is let''s not panic. we are Top on merit and players don''t become poor players overnight.

If you are feeling nervous I suggest that you look at the teams below us and put yourself in their fans shoes - Would you swap places?

[AJ 1,358]

well said, i think its a hard one to chose from.
Jarvis i think is better than Henderson but he cant play aswell there.
That would be interesting thou the huckerby one, Surprise the team dont start with hucks then bring him on for maybe 4-3-3 that sounds good.
One of Worthys Half Time Specials!!!!
POA
TOTLAPR
OTBC

[Glenn Foy 0]

If Hucks needs a rest - and this weekend may be the best time to do it - then start with Svensson and Leon up front. Maybe removing the pressure for 45 minuts will inject that little bit of sharpness back into the Huckster, so that he can come on at half time and wreak havoc over Stoke. We''ve placed too much upon the shoulders of The Great One; I think that leaving him on the bench for a half may actually make the team play better, as we would have to play some passing football again, rather than just whack the ball up the left wing and hope that He can produce some magic again.

[Tufnell Park Canary 0]

Your thoughts are certainly controversial, but I think they have they have the potential to work. At Palcae there was far to much whacking the ball at huckerby (or, in the case of Shackell - straight into touch) and watching him run into (not past) 2 defenders.

But could we really drop Hucks? I''m not sure I would.

[ZLF 335]

It was not just against Palace - we have been relying on the long ball to Hux for 8-9 games now and the return is slowly dwindling.

However it would be madness to drop him - the most attacking player in the side and the one with most assists. Has the panic in fans descended to this???

What we need IS TO KEEP CALM. Keep faith with the formation and team that got us in this position - which means 4-4-2 with a target man with Hux up front.

What we do need is a slight tactical change that means we mix up the game a bit more - yes we keep hitting long balls for Hux to fetch - but we mix it up with some good passing through midfield and quality passes to Sven as the target man - aiming for his feet so he can hold it up but also making sure that we dont pass it to the opposition.

The most successful teams have an element of all three - and at our best so do we - it just seems that we have forgotten this and opted to us the Hux route one 95% of the team - how many times in the last couple of games has greeno tried a quick clearance to Hux when he had two players on him already or delivered to his head ???

Keep it calm - it will be fine as long as we return to our strengths and remove the predictability.

OTBC

[Karl Pilkington 0]

This is certainly something I have considered. The opposition puts so much thought into dealing with Hucks they would be shocked when he didnt start.

[a1canary 0]

You get my backing Drinks, i''ve been calling for this for a while...

http://new.pinkun.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=18800

[shortfatb 0]

I don''t necessarily think Hucks should be dropped, but we do need the rest of the team to recognise that there are other options in attack besides him. Before the great man''s arrival we managed to score the odd goal, but now we see occasions where McVeigh, Brennan and Francis find themselves in strong attacking positions but still try to find Huckerby rather than shooting or passing to somebody else. In the same way Malky and Fleming rarely pass out to the wings even when there are clear options that do not involve Hucks.

[TWEETY PIE 0]

When we are paying what we are reportedly paying Hucks he STARTS,the problem is finding someone he can play with let me explain my point.When Svensson receives the ball 95% of the time he doesnt hold it up but goes for a flick pass/header Hucks is nowhere around him there fore we have 2 central defenders marking him one goes for the ball with Svensson and the other mops up any resultant flick or header.Just a thought but it also happened with Leon against Bradford.I think we need Leon/Svesson up front with Hucks on the left and Cooper on the right.Also the first ball we won all afternoon at Palace was when Iwan came on and i dont think it was any coincidence we had our two best chances but thats a whole new argument.Your thoughts please

[no1canary 0]

u can''t take hucks off because we are playing the long ball too much. if that is the case take off the people who r playing the long balls all the time!
i have also noticed that when svensson gets near the ball hucks is no where to be seen other than mcveighs position on the left! if he wants to be out there so much put him left wing! mckenzie does play a lot closer to the big man so the long ball does work. thats why we done so well in the 3 game period over christmas without hucks. without the big man scoring, we r only relying on the midfielders scoring as hucks is down the wing creating them.
i noticed in the second half of the gillingham game that huckerby didn''t go out to the left so much-therefore allowing mcveigh to do his job-therefore playing better and getting a deserved goal.
team for stoke and most of the rest of season.

green
edworthy mackay fleming drury/brennan
cooper francis/mulryne/holt huckerby
svensson/roberts mckenzie

[susie b 0]

James, if you have Hucks on the left side of midfield, as your format seems to suggest, the danger is that we will be exposed by teams attacking down our right flank as he would be expected to track back and defend when needed. That just isn''t his strength and isn''t the most sensible use of what he does best...if that makes sense. Ok - play him in a wandering role with two others up front, but then I think you would have to just go with three across the middle. Problem is, we may concede more, but at least we''d stand a pretty good chance of outscoring the opposition. Remember Rotherham. That''s the formation we played there, but it did weaken us at the back, and we didn''t outscore them that day. Hucks is a striker not a midfielder, but I agree with you about not taking him off just because others are not playing to his strengths.

[stan the man 0]

I would like to see the 4-3-3 formation played at a home game, as i think it could be the answer to our poor first halfs.
I feel that the way hucks plays his game, the other striker is isolated and they play to far apart. With the third striker playing in the middle of the existing two everything would click in to place. We play alot better at home as we all know and with the crowd behind the team with us playing a very attacking 4-3-3 the opposition would wonder what has hit them.
Team for Saturday:-
Green
Edworthy
Mackay
Flemming (if fit,) or Shackell
Brennan
McVeigh
Holt
Cooper
Huckerby
Svennson
McKenzie

Subs:- Crichton, Mulryne, Roberts, Jarvis, Henderson