Who Thinks Bentley Should Play Up Front??

[Green and Golddust 0]

Think about it. Bentley and Huckerby together! Pace power skill!! We can always bring on Svennson later in the day if teams require battering into submission? What does everyone think?

[JarroldSinger 0]

I think that may be a better way to play. Start with McVeigh on the left maybe and alternate him and Jonson, McVeigh looked bright when he came on .....

[Northern Canary 0]

Its worth a try i suppose

[0Amarillo<P><FONT color=#cccc00 size=4><EM> º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ Amarillo ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°<EM><FONT><P>ddMMyyyy0Falseen-US<P><FONT color=#cccc00 size=4><EM> º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ Amarillo ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°<EM><FONT><P>True 0]

He''s a winger though isn''t he, and Worthy talks about preferring to play players in their natural positions. Mind you, I always think Hux looks more like a (very good) left winger, similar to Eadie when he was at his best for us, because he likes to stay to close to the touchline. Which is fine provided you''ve got others coming across into the middle. I''d certainly like to see Bentley overlapping with Hux and combining their skills to (hopefully) devastating effect!

[AJ 1,224]

wouldnt work

Remember hux and Mckenzie upfront?
We had nothing......

We need height, and bently aint goign to become a target man

[The Doc 0]

Interesting thoughts but think it could be a similar situation as hux and leon.

I was thinking that we could play hux on the left with bently just behind sven in the rooney role. It seems from seeing the game saturday and the week before that hux spends a lot of his time on the left anyway and this tends to leave sven quite isolated.

[Rabbit 0]

leave bentley on the wing, the problem as i see it, is fitting mckenzie into the starting line up, we can`t keep a player who i see getting 10-15 goals a season for us, keeping the bench warm.

[Pete Raven 276]

My Arsenal-supporting former housemate rang me up at the weekend to ask how Bentley got on. When I said he was playing on the left wing he laughed and told me that if we don''t play him behind the front man and leave him on the wing we might as well send him back to Arsenal.

[Pyro Pete 1,909]

I spoke to a colleague who supports Arsenal about this yesterday evening.

He said that at Arsenal Bentley is seen to be in the Bergkamp/Reyes mould. But he has only played one hour in the Premiership, and that was on the left wing against Portsmouth where he was pretty ineffective (his words). He''s played 8 other matches for Arsenal - 4 in the League Cup, 3 in the FA Cup and one in the Champions League.

Apparently he models himself on Bergkamp, and the Arsenal fans call him the second DB10!

So on that basis I would try him up front, or just behind the front two.

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

I''m with AJ on this one. We always need height up front IMO. Having pumped long balls for Iwan for the past X number of years I think we''re stuck with that game plan.

[Old Yeller 0]

it didn''t work in the game at Peterborough.

[Old Boy 0]

"Height" meaning aerial threat? - we don''t have anyone like that now. Our tallest striker is Jarvis (6''1", but only 72kg), who I think will eventually fill that bill, followed by Svensson (6''0", 78kg), and MacKenzie (5''11", 79kg). Of those three, MacKenzie is currently the most likely to win contested headers. But in any case we shouldn''t be tied to yesterday''s tactics - we must try playing to feet. That won''t be easy when our defence and midfield will be given no time on the ball, but we have to do it. A "target man" is too predictable and easy to neutralise.

[AJ 1,224]

thanx DD

Peter, the fact they laughed might be a joke?

lol

otbc

[Pete Raven 276]

He was laughing at us, not with us...

[olster 0]

I thought he was meant to be the new bergkamp

why not play hucks and jonson up front and play him in a floating role behind them then play francis holt and safri in midfield

i thought bentley looked good when he moved in field on sat



the big question is will he be fit for saturday? he has pulled out of the england under 21 game injured?

[ZLF 274]

The Bentley Bergkamp comparison has been doing the rounds for a while and that is definitely where the gooners see him playing in future - just off the main striker but ahead of the forward.

However for city that would mean a major overhaul over our tactical approach to the game. I would love to see Bentley sitting of a lead striker (Hux) but it would mean a far more progressive approach through midfield rather than relying on the ball to the left wing where hux is waiting. It could work if we push the wide me forward a la Arse rather than going through the midfield.

As yet I dont think we have enough players (especially defenders) who could play the ball to feet (still to many balls to Sven at 7 foot - he too is at his best when played to his feet) with a frequent enough accuracy to make this game plan work - hence my long held desire of an attacking ball playing central midfielder.

Alternatively we could change the line up to a Portugal like shape 4-2-3-1 with the defence unchanged, 2 from holt/safri/francis in the holding roles, McVeigh, Bentley and Jonson in the floating advanced midfield roles (giving Bentley a near Bergkamp position) like Ronaldo/Figo/Deco with Hux using his movement up front to give they flairsome threesome someone to pass to..

OTBC

As a result I suspect

[Flick Fleck 0]

In the same 4-2-3-1 mold, does it work like this?


------------------------Green------------------------

-----Helveg------Charlton-----Fleming------Drury-----

------------------Holt----------Safri-----------------

Jonson--------------- -----------Huckerby
---Bently---

---------------------Sven / Leon---------------------

Hmm...

[ZLF 274]

It could certainly work with those players FF. My preference would be for hux to lead the line in a similar manner if not so effectively as Theirry does for arsenal.

Putting Hux in the middle three would mean that the he would always drift left which would mean the other two would have a more restricted role, however keeping hux up front would give allow him to drift left and encourage the other three to be very flexible positionally - they can all play anywhere across the middle and have pace to support hux on the break. The middle three would still have to work defensively, which would be a waste of Hux.

Also having sven, and to a lesser degree leon, still encourages the back line to hoof the ball forward more than is necessary - having hux would encourage a greater degree of accurate passing.

OTBC

[Worthy Nigelton<br><br><br><br><br>Evening News Sports Page Headline 8th August 2007:<br><br>Henderson joins Dereham Town. 0]

"Old Boy" I couldn''t agree more - great post. We shouldn''t rely on just smashing it to a big bloke to flick on - we should try to keep it on the deck and build up gradually.