Worthy Y O Y?

[ZLF 274]

have we abandoned the 4-5-1 approach?

Against Spurs we were dominating the form team of the league by playng Safri and Helveg deep with a front 4 when needed of Jonson, Bentley and Hux supporting Leon. Bentley was buzzing and the best player on the pitch in his central role and Jonson is looking like a player coming to terms with the prem and showing that he will be a force to be reckoned with for the latter part of the season.

However at half time we lost Safri and replaced him with an identikit midfielder in Mullers. All three substitutions were a straight swap of like for like players yet we started the second half with Hux up front with leon and a central midfield pairing of Helveg & Mullers in the old 4-4-2 formation.

Why was this tactical move made? The players we lost were replaced on a like for like basis and the
4-5-1 was giving us the domination we needed. Reverting to 4-4-2 gave us a soft central midfield pairing as neither as enough pace or energy to dominate that key part of the pitch and eventually was a key contribution to the second spurs goal. Didnt Worthy recall how poorly that pairing played against Fulham???

It also had the effect of marginalising our best player to the right wing - from dominating the first half as well as he did against Bolton Bentley became a peripheral figure who virtually disappeared from view as the Mullers/Helveg partnership failed to get the ball and play it to him in a position he could hurt spurs. He had to focus on defending rather than doing what he does best. It was a classic case of a player who is in form being played out of position by the manager and not getting the best from him for the team.

It is easy to blame the strikers and defenders but the manager must take some responsibility for the defeat in losing a game that we had dominated by unnecessarily changing the formation.

The 4-5-1 gives our very poor defence extra cover and also gets the best out of our attacked minded players who are all prepared to work hard defensively. We do have the players to make this work even with the current injury list and a return to 4-5-1 is a MUST against Pompey.

OTBC

[Northern Canary 0]

we have probably abandoned it because there are not enough midfield players. Helveg, Safri and Francis and sort of Mulryne have/are injured

[TwoSheds 0]

Or because he hasnt got the slightest idea what he is doing!

[funny old game 1]

Zippers left foot

I agree with the point you are making about the 4-5-1 formation, It was interesting that CP used the same tactic against Spurs yesterday and had the better of the game until Defoe was introduced,  I have to disagree with your comparison with Safri & Mulryne as "like for like" , Safri probably puts in more tackles in 45 minutes than Mulryne has managed in all appearances this term, distribution wise theres not a great deal to choose between them.

I think Safri is more of a defensive player who does most of his work inside his own half (although he has shown on occasions that he is capable of producing telling passes) whereas, Mulryne is supposed to be a playmaker "the most creative player in the club" although for the life of me I cannot remember the last decent chance he made, this is an area that needs addressing in the coming month either by way of a loan deal or a transfer, going back to your point, its a system which when everyone''s fit & with the introduction of someone who can score goals on a regular basis will be used again