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Boyo

A holding midfielder

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Last night we played a 4-3-1-2 formation where Fox ''sat'' in front of the back four but not in the same way as Russel did as Fox liked to join up with the attack more.  I felt from last night though, that we really missed a holding player to break up opposition attacks.  Lots of the time (and this is no criticisime of Fox) there was plenty of space between the back four and the midfield three and when balls went up to the Watford front men Nelson and Ward had to attack the ball leaving a lot of space behind the defence which is how a lot of the Watford counter attacks started.

Also we missed a ball winner and whilst Crofts is not afraid to put his foot in I don''t think he would be any good in the holding role, however I think this is where Korey Smith could come back into the team.  Whilst his passing may not be as good as Fox''s he would win the ball more and I''m sure he would be more than happy to sit there, win the ball and start the attacks.

However I would not drop Fox to do this.  Surman was the poorest midfielder for us so he, at the moment, would be the one who is dropped.  So the midfield would look like this;

                                                   Smith

                                 Crofts                        Fox

                                                 Hoolahan

I would like to see this played against Gilligham just to see how it works out and I also don''t know how fit Korey Smith is but, do you agree with me or do we just need to persevere?  I''m not saying the midfield was rubbish and we must make wholesale changes or anything like that but if we are going to play a formation like that I think we need a strong holding player.  And don''t get me wrong, I like the look of Fox as a player.

Your thoughts...

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I agree and disagree.

I don''t think Fox had a bad game in the holding role - from my view he got stuck in a lot and looked to pass the ball wide. Played very much like Clingan did for us which is good news.

I think you need someone with experience to play in this role - Clingan and Russell have both played at DM before but Korey Smith has not played DM much by himself. I think he is a better player when linking up with the attackers, but I see much more to come from Surman and Crofts was our best player on Friday night.

However, I wouldn''t mind seeing Korey play on Tuesday in the cup. Depends whether Lambert wants more game time for the starting 11 or to rest a few of them.

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crofts    smith    fox   surman

              hoolahan

                 holt

more stable but the problem would be getting the goals

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I personally think our midfield will be fine. I just think our two central defenders, Ward and Nelson were very poor last night, they really struggled against Graham and even Sordell in the air. This meant they were able to hold the ball up and bring their midfield into play. I do think they will both come good, especially Ward, who incidentally I thought started the game really well, he looked very sharp to the ball and made a great couple of  tackles, unfortunately this only lasted about 7 minutes! Anyhow, I expect Lambert to pick ''em again and lead us to a win at Scunny!

Also, anyone notice that Ward has a very unorthodox slide tackling technique, it does look dangerously close to being two footed?

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We need a holding midfielder in the Russell mold because with the diamond formation it relies largely on the full backs getting forward and providing width. However with last night the holding midfielder Fox was not in a position to cover the attacking full back much like Russell did last year and we got caught numerous times on the counter attack.

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Yep I think we should maybe change formation a bit. Maybe a 4-5-1 so we dominate the midfield, and hopefully stop them scoring, then we just need to work the opening for us to score.Hey, it worked for Derby and Ipswich, both away yesterday. [Y]

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For away games I think we''ll need to go more 4-5-1 anyway.

The diamond thing is great when it works, but on Friday we played such a high line there was an acre to exploit behind the defence! Watford certainly made the most of that didn''t they?

Right-side midfield concerned me; when Russell Martin was in possession he rarely had anyone ahead of him in space to pass to. The midfield had a left-bias which left a gaping hole in front of Russell Martin. What were his options? Run 80 yards down the wing and muster a decent cross? There was no-one with any height up front until Holt came on, so that would have been pointless - especially with Martin Taylor mopping up everything for Watford.

Russell Martin could have opted for a good old Gary Doherty diagonal ball to the left wing I suppose, but that would eradicate the midfield who have been assembled for their passing ability.

Thought we might have seen McNamee at the same time as Holt in the second half to inject some pace on that right-hand side?

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