Saint Garrett

There was that cracker Vs Birmingham on a Tuesday night think we were 3-0 after 20 minutes and it was freezing.

Despite him being our second best striker for a month ?

alt + f4

Kingsland North doing the same thing, COYS !!!

Although I agree egg, and that will defeinitely help us out defensively, we're not going to drop Adam, or Gaston. And like someone else stated...we spent £12m on a 'no 10' who wants to play in behind the striker and get involved, he's going to want to play there. I don't know what the answer is but you can see why we keep making substitutions as we've got about 7 or 8 players to fit into 3 positions.

They got 2 points off us. HTH.

I think when we're taking it to teams at home then it's fine to play like that. But when we're away, or against a better side where a draw would be a good result at home, play 3 in midfield with 2 wide players and 1 striker. Just means that Gaston will have to play wide, and he's the player who we need to be involved as much as possible.

Very odd.

Which is why I said I'd start with -----Morgan --- Cork------ Mayuka---Gaston---Lallana ----------J-Rod----------- Maybe chuck Lambert in at home and J-Rod away. Possibly change to more of a 3 CM's away from home in Cork, Morgan and Davis, and then have J-Rod, Gaston and one other in the front 3 places. We're not short of options it's just finding the right combination.

Well after you saying you wouldn't play Lallana in the '2' you have put him there, and our main strength is probably playing Gaston off the striker where he played Vs Villa and Everton.

And we'd have f-all width. We'll play 2 defensive midfielders, one roaming in front, 2 wider players and 1 up top. It works for plenty of other teams so no reason why it can't with us. Only problem is neither of our CM's are 'bruisers'. They're both quite happy with the ball and passing it about but not particularly great when they need to get stuck in. -----Morgan --- Cork------ Mayuka---Gaston---Lallana ----------J-Rod----------- Is probably the best we have at the moment. Maybe Guly/Punch/Lambert could be swapped in but thats how we're going to play.

4123 is essentially what we played Vs Man Utd, with Morgan in that role in front of the back four and he was absolutely outstanding in that game. I just think we need to have a few options, but it can't help that we're changing formation so regularly. You suggesting a 505 won't help things, it will just cause more problems. And your arguement of it being more of a 4123 is wrong, as Lallana and Ramirez aren't capable of playing in a midfield 2. They'll go missing and essentially our team will be split into 5 defenders, and 5 attackers.

It is one of the many problems I think. Our team doesn't particularly look like a 'team' does it. However, it's not going to help improve how good our defence is.

If I do **** at work I don't get taken on holiday!!!

No he's just abysmal

38k after tax supposedly, although who knows what tax rates footballers use.

One of the things that Morgan and Davis are pretty good at is ball retention. They're not very good at getting stuck in and driving forwards like Mulumbu was the other night against us. Admitably they both gave the ball away a fair bit on Monday night, but I don't think thats the problem, hence why we've had a lot of the ball in all our games. The problem is defensively, not when they have the ball.

If you're worried about us not being able to shield the back four with 2 pretty defensive minded CM's, how do you think we'll get on with an attacking midfielder in CM with an 18 yr old. I wouldn't even play like that on FM !!

Bump - Went on sale today for just STH with no games needing to be attached.

We certainly have defensive minded people at the club in Dodd/Jaidi and Crosby. Surprised we aren't using them to help the defence out.

You say that but he is a class act. I've always said he's one of our best players and we really struggle when he doesn't play. However he was atrocious on Monday night - but his bad performances have been few and far between. He's one of those players who plays well in a team with confidence, but never going to be a match winner on his own. You can slate him for playing the easy pass, but we all know he is capable of the hollywood 60 yard cross field ball as well. What would you rather, he passed it to our defence, or gave the ball away trying to pass it forward everytime. No he's not a player who is going to run around a lot, and put in flying crunching tackles, but then we don't play like that. I'm sure if he had a bit of a powerhouse alongside him in midfield he'd look far better. Almost think that him and Davis are too often trying to do the same thing. It was only about a month ago people on this forum were saying he should be called up for France but never would get a chance while Deschamps is in charge. He has put in more good performances than bad this season IMO but we're just not playing well as a team at the moment.

Lallana will play regardless. He is a good player who will make things happen and he does try hard, but half the time it means that he is out of position, therefore leaves Fox with 2 attackers. Possibly more of a 'home' player than an away. Can we afford to start both Lallana and Ramirez away from home ?! I have my doubts.

I do agree, but I just feel he gives us a bigger physical chance. Too often this season, our players have just been pushed off the ball.

I blame Lallana personally, then Morgan, then Yoshida. Should never have been able to get that shot off.

Left field shout but he gives us a bit of power and gets stuck in, atleast he offers something unlike Punch, and although I like Mayuka, I feel he's a better impact sub. Guly was a key part in why we were promoted last season lets not forget that. All the abuse he gets Is out of order IMO!