David Fox... Come on down!

[Howson is now! 0]

Now as I''m sure many on here know, David Fox is without doubt my favourite player but I do always try and be objective and unbiased.Before the season, there were a lot of people saying that Fox had a chance to be our stand out player in the prem due to his passing and dead ball abilities. He rarely puts a foot wrong and is extremely assured with the ball at his feet. In the prem, teams tend to allow you to play the ball around about 40 yards out for as long as you want, get within 30 yards and you''re suddenly under so much pressure it''s often very difficult to get through. I agreed with him (to an extent) dropping to the bench against Chelsea to beef up our midfield but felt we sorely missed him against Stoke and West Brom.I believe that yesterday we hit on possibly our best midfield formation of Fox, Johnson, Hoolahan, Pilkington, and Bennett. We''ve got Johnson breaking up play and covering ground very effectively, Fox playing the ball about wherever he wants too, outstanding pace on both flanks and Hoolahan''s creativity and harrying for the ball.The dead ball delivery was outstanding as well with both goals coming as a result of those spot on dead balls. It was also a deft touch by Fox that led to him being flattened and the ball running through for Morison to confuse everybody by playing on.I don''t see it as too defensive as I''m sure most of us think of it as more a 4-4-1-1, or 4-2-3-1 as opposed to 5 across the middle so would love to see this continue for the upcoming Sunderland game.

[Robert N. LiM 4,243]

I think PL realised that he got it wrong against WBA, leaving out our two most creative players in Wes and Fox. Fair play to him for putting it right yesterday.

Agree that the 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1 formation suits Fox. In fact, I''d go so far as to say that it''s the only formation that gets Wes and Fox in the same team.

Holt misses out because he''s not mobile enough to be the sole striker, which is rough on him because he''s a legend. But I think yesterday''s is more or less our best team. Wouldn''t be surprised to see Crofts come back in for Bennett if Pl wants to be a bit more cautious.

[Charles 0]

Thought Fox was excellent yesterday. Very comfortable on the ball and really makes us tick. His quality on the ball really allows us to build from the back and I thought this complimented the players round him and allowed the midfield to work well as a unit.

[Sing Up The River End 0]

Fox was brilliant.

Alot of the time this season the midfield has panicked and rushed some passes. Fox eliminates this by slowing the play down and spraying some lovely passes about.

[ZLF 271]

keeping possession is so key, and without the improved delivery of crosses from set pieces I dont think we would have won. Hope he keeps his place - quality football always preferable to pace for me. my motm

[curly_whirly_tipz 0]

We definately need players like Fox and Hoolahan for that bit of added creation to help us win games. I think Fox will be a real asset this year and I hope he starts against Sunderland.

[CDMullins 436]

Id love to see a midfield 3 off Fox, Crofts and Johnson

[Boyo 0]

It was clear in the West Brom game that we lacked creativity so bringing in Fox was absolutely the right decision.  When we play with both Crofts and Johnson neither of them have that defence splitting pass so all they do is pass it sideways to the full backs or wingers to put in crosses and when we constantly do that we are far to predictable.  However with Fox in the team we have far more options because whilst we still put in a lot of crosses we can play through the middle as well.  Having different options is absolutely crucial for any team in this league and Fox gives us those different options.

[Road to Nowhere 0]

Agree with all the above, he had a great game.

I think for me the most important thing is having someone in the prem who can take a good set piece. This gives us a real goal threat IMO.

[Howson is now! 0]

[quote user="Road to Nowhere"]

Agree with all the above, he had a great game.

I think for me the most important thing is having someone in the prem who can take a good set piece. This gives us a real goal threat IMO.

[/quote]

 

I honestly think Lambert believes that too and that is a contributing factor as to why Chris Martin has been more involved at the start of the season. We don''t seem to have any real quality with dead balls apart from Fox and Martin and if Lambert thought goals were going to be hard to come by, this could be why he was starting.

 

I don''t think Johnson has been very good with the dead balls and would be interesting to see what our other left footers have to offer perhaps.

[San Miguel 0]

I was expecting a post from you Who Let The Fox Out and quite rightly so.

 

I''ll be honest and say that when Fox joined i didn''t see a need for him.  Crofts was my preferred central midfielder and at first i really thought Fox wasn''t helping the team.  As last season went on and his long passing and set piece play became better and better I was proved wrong.

 

Fox was the man of the match vs Bolton in my opinion.  Without him we have not looked very creative - our only attacking tactic being shove it down the wing and hope the cross works out.  Fox''s set pieces were outstanding and, whilst Johnson has done well in most other aspects, he can''t take a set piece.

 

We have to have Fox in the starting 11, in my opinion. I also think we should be playing 2 strikers and Hoolahan so quite how that works out i don''t know but Fox is as important as Ruddy, Holt, or Tierney right now.  Long may his outstanding performances continue...

[Salopian 1]

He had a very good game, and our goals both came from his crosses. He made a major contributution.

But although he gets stuck in he is not a defender, and has been booked for a bad tackle. So when he plays, ideally we need both Crofts and Johnson for defensive duties, as we can''t rely on Pilington and Bennett getting back effectively. They both did work very hard, but we need them to save their energy for quick dashes down the line, and then good crosses for the (single?) striker.