New & Returning Players and the Starting 11

[BigFish 1,986]

[quote user="mrs miggins"]but why not try to put our two goalscrorers together for a few games? Gary Hooper played his best when he was alongside Stokes at celtic, he doesn''t need to have a target man next to him, although some may say the championship is a better league (true) and therefore you need a big man up top, it''s worth a try; a strict 4-4-2 has worked a for teams such as blackburn and watford, why not for us, its not like hooper and grabban are small; they''ve both played as a lone striker.[/quote]

Putting two up front is no guarantee of more goal as anyone who watched England''s laboured 442 would know.

The strength of our start has come from our two holding midfielders (who have also chipped in three goals) so to change this now is madness.

[mrs miggins 0]

(in response to big fish)

Not really, yes we''ve been playing well, but there''s room for improvement as we were quite average v Bournemouth and should''ve created more despite our hard work. I know two up top doesn''t mean more goals otherwise everyone would be doing it but I think we should at least try a play Hooper and Grabban in the same side because they''re the players most likely to score when given the chance as well as being in form atm; it will be interesting to see if its more beneficial.

Grabban''s played on the left where Lafferty (who hasn''t been doing so well recently) plays, so if he gets the same amount of chances as him, i''m sure grabban is likely to take it in the form that he''s in. I''m not saying having them both in the side will work, i''m saying we should try it because it could be more beneficial to the team because although they''re seen as poachers, they''re quite different players and could compliment each other.

[Sussexyellow 55]

I would not go for 4 4 2 as the alternative. Which is why I suggested the diamond because I think we have the personnel to now play it successfully.

Wes has been at his most effective when he has two ahead of him making runs. It would give a role for V-OO, who I am hoping will be one of the best players on our books. Width would come from having full backs with pace. And it keeps together Johnson and Tettey who have been effective so far.

I accept it''s all a bit Lambertesque, but we quite liked that.

OTBC

[Nuff Said 5,131]

[quote user="mrs miggins"]but why not try to put our two goalscrorers together for a few games? Gary Hooper played his best when he was alongside Stokes at celtic, he doesn''t need to have a target man next to him, although some may say the championship is a better league (true) and therefore you need a big man up top, it''s worth a try; a strict 4-4-2 has worked a for teams such as blackburn and watford, why not for us, its not like hooper and grabban are small; they''ve both played as a lone striker.[/quote]Hooper is 5 foot 9 - small for a striker.

[BigFish 1,986]

If you really want a space for Hooper I can see merit in Mrs M''s idea of moving Grabban to wide of the three but the diamond is a complete non-starter with our players - we would get murdered. No pace, no width and no cover.

[mrs miggins 0]

Nuff Said wrote the following post at 05/09/2014 2:15 PM:

Hooper is 5 foot 9 - small for a striker.

----------------------

He''s 5"9 but he''s not small, he is in height, but he''s stocky and thats why he''s different to Grabban; which is why I think we should give it a try because they can both play as the lone striker, but Grabban can also play on the left cutting inside.

[chicken 0]

At this point I would say there is absolutely no point drastically changing the starting line up unless it''s due to injuries etc.If it ain''t broke, don''t fix it.However, I suspect the two most likely changes could be in defense. Olsson back in for Garrido. We might see one of the new center backs coming in an Whittaker dropping out of the side with Martin sliding over to RB.They''d be the most obvious changes injuries aside.If you move Grabban from upfront at this point, you''d be somewhere in between stupid and brave with only the outcome deciding which you are closer to. He''s scoring goals, perhaps he could have had more, but he is there, getting in on the end of those chances, Hooper is not the same person, the same player so there is no guarantee he would be on the end of them. I wouldn''t change that.I''d be more tempted to play around with the width.That said. We won''t have spent £4million on a Belgian international aged 25 to keep him warming the bench unless he was a huge mistake.

[Yarmy Charlie 0]

The one thing that worries me is we don''t seem to get enough bodies in the box, which is why I suggested trying 352. I''m sure there was a team in the World Cup that used that formation (can''t remember who) and they play attractive flowing football, even against the top teams, seemed to catch them out as if they didn''t know how to respond.

Maybe I''m being more critical against my own team but I''m sure when you watch us play, the opposition always get more in the box when they attack (2 or 3) than we do when we attack (lucky if it''s 1 sometimes!). Maybe this is more down to tactics than formation tho? Playing 2 defensive midfielders perhaps doesn''t help but I''m not sure the diamond would work either. Who''d be a manager eh? :D

[Sussexyellow 55]

Indeed - who would be a manager Yarmy!

But as we are all charlatans on here perhaps we ought to leave it to the manager!!

[star_manic 0]

If it ain''t broke, don''t fix it Chicken? How about "if it ain''t perfect, improve it". We are far from perfect, although still very good. I hope we do not use two defensive mid-fielders any more. We need to be more pro-active and make the opposition worry about us. Two DM''s is sending out a negative signal to our opponents.

[chicken 0]

Only if you focus on the two central midfielders and leave out that we have five attacking players.

We are creating plenty of chances. Even against Bournemouth we were guilty of not converting a couple more. I''d worry if we were not creating chances and losing badly but we''re not.

I don''t see a change in formation at this point. As I said before, it would be very risky to change other than one or two personnel.

In addition, improvement - yes, but you want a change of formation.

When those defensive midfielders are getting forward and scoring, you''d have to say they are doing well.

[Camden Canary 0]

Although we have been doing great with the 4-2-3-1 I watch how teams such as Leicester, Burnley got out of this league last season and I felt we ran out of ideas against a very good Bournemouth team who came with a game plan I feel 4-4-2 at home with overlapping fullbacks would see us almost unbeatable so I say at home:

Ruddy

Martin

Miquel

Turner

Olson

Redmond

Howson

Tettey

Bennett

Hooper

Grabben

I''m stuck for one wing as Wes isn''t a winger im not 100% sure if ofoe can play there or if mcgrandles is ready for it yet but time will tell. Stick to 4-2-3-1 away though. I''m just excited by the competition we have