4-5-1 has to go

[TheMarshmallowMan 0]

It can''t have escape our attention that the 4-5-1 has started failing both of the teams that use it - Palace and Norwich. Despite good starts for both teams using the tactic, you can''t help but feel with the ease Villa beat Norwich, and Newcastle beat Palace that other teams have sussed it out.

Back to the 4-4-2, and onwards to better times!

[yoda 0]

i completely agree . its a negative tactic which only works if you have top players . to sign ashton only to stick him up front on his todd is mad .

[Robbo007 0]

To be fair, i don''t think the formation makes a bit of difference. At the end of the day, we always have the same back four defence line, and then the other 6 seem to play the same position every week. What exactly is the difference between us playing a 4-5-1, with Hucks and Jonson pushing up when we have the ball, and playing a 4-3-3 with Hucks and Jonson helping defend when the ball is in our half??? The same applies when playing a 4-4-2, because Hucks plays where he wants, and so either the second striker has to sit back sometimes, or we end up playing a 4-5-1!!

How I see it is that Eddy is pretty good going forward, Drury gets isolated in defence, and we are lacking a centre midfielder.....so surely the answer is to play 5-3-2, with Eddy and Brennan playing wing-backs, Doherty, Fleming and Charlton (or shackell), playing centre defence, then Francis, Jonson and Hucks playing in a midfield 3, with Leon and Ashton up front.

[BedsCanary 0]

Remember the Bolton game? The 4-5-1 formation proved brilliant when we play well.

 

At the end of the day, this is the Premiership and there is no single formation/strategy that will get you through the season. It''s all down to the coaching staff doing their homework on their opponents and playing to their weaknesses accordingly. 4-5-1 killed off Bolton but was completely innefective against bigger teams like Villa, Liverpool and Middlesbrough. The diamond too, for all it''s faults worked well away from home against Spurs but wasn''t up to standard when playing at home against lesser opposition.

It all boils down to the coaching staff, how much homework they do, how they can apply the team and the players and plan each match accordingly - not just play the same way every week.

[ZLF 274]

As Beds points our best performance all season came against Bolton and even in that game we conceeded two soft goals which highlights where our issues really are.  In addition Everton or Charlton hardly have top class players playing that formation do they?  

In the Bolton game because we had gone behind twice we moved from the standard 4-5-1 we used in the first half and pushed our three attacking midfielders, Bentley, Jonson and Hux, much further up the field.  This meant that Sven was not as isolated as he had been in the first half, put much greater pressure on the bolton defence and stretching their midfield.  Campo went from dominating a static 5 man norwich midfield to being mystified on how to combat it, became ineffective and was substituted.  That version of the 4-5-1 (more a 4-2-3-1) very much suits us when we have the players fit.  Since that games injuries have meant that instead of Helveg and Safri we have had Mullers or Brennan and A N Other - which is where the weakness lies - we need  the defencive security the having two of Helveg/safri/francis as the deep two to make it work.  They have the tactical ability provide the cover in front of the back 4 when we are attacking (a forward moving 4some of Bentley, Jonson (played well again against Villa) Hux and Ashton would worry most teams, especially as any two from the three deep midfielders can pass.

When we do not have that key deep lying partnership working well the whole system fails - the defence gets exposed and when playing a more straight 5 across midfield there is a clear lack of desire from the attackers to get back as quickly as is needed and/or for the defencive roles to be abandonded as they pass responsibility to another player.  This is the last thing that our poor quality defence needs.

 Given our fit players can we use any form of the 4-5-1?  I agree that currently the midfielders filling in the spaces simply do not allow it to work.  We could use a 4-2-3-1 once Safri or Helveg are back to partner francis with McVeigh taking the bentley role as his lack of weight would be less critical.

So I agree that given our injury crisis a 4-5-1 is out of the question.  5-3-2 has been suggested but playing yet another system would not be good for the squad - they have already had 4-4-2 and the diamond version of the same.  We should revert to the 4-4-2 - the players know that system well - but the only proviso has to be the Hux is NOT in the wide left position - it exposes the left back, whether charlie or drury, far too much and has cost us more goals than we have created chances; that tactic has to stop.

Hux is not a chance taker when played up front, but he is a much better chance taker/chance maker as a partner for Ashon than he will ever be a  left midfielder in the prem.

 

OTBC