Our 'forwards'.....

[Whitey Grandad]

22 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Start Stewart and Archer

Look to have Archer sitting on the shoulder of the last defender who would get onto the end of through balls, Stewart as the more 'target' man, who can have crosses delivered to him. Two different types of player who can compliment each other and give opposing defences two types of threat to deal with.

Play Fernandes behind the strikers to feed forward passes and use wing-backs to deliver the crosses. Although this would leave us with 3/5 at the back which is unpopular.

Just my two pence.

 

Strikers always operate best in pairs. A lonely striker is easy to defend against.  

[Lighthouse]

57 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

What's the best option then? 

• Archer playing as a 10 off Stewart
• Armstrong playing wide off Downs
• BBD and Stewart as a forward pair
• Archer playing off the last man, with AA in the space behind
• Armstrong playing wide off Stewart

Any number of combinations of the above players would be an improvement on playing our shortest striker alone as a #9 with everyone else on the bench.

[washsaint]

22 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

• Archer playing as a 10 off Stewart
• Armstrong playing wide off Downs
• BBD and Stewart as a forward pair
• Archer playing off the last man, with AA in the space behind
• Armstrong playing wide off Stewart

Any number of combinations of the above players would be an improvement on playing our shortest striker alone as a #9 with everyone else on the bench.

All of those permutations look horrific.  Wasn't this all tried in pre-season and failed?

[S-Clarke]

30 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

• Archer playing as a 10 off Stewart
• Armstrong playing wide off Downs
• BBD and Stewart as a forward pair
• Archer playing off the last man, with AA in the space behind
• Armstrong playing wide off Stewart

Any number of combinations of the above players would be an improvement on playing our shortest striker alone as a #9 with everyone else on the bench.

If we ever get to a position of watching BBD and Stewart up top as a pair, I will gouge my eyes out.

Stuart and BBD being included as options shows how much we've regressed tbh. And they were our PL options too, what on earth.

[Badger]

41 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Strikers always operate best in pairs. A lonely striker is easy to defend against.  

But you have to realise that isn’t the modern way Whitey in the game of Xg etc.

The game is no longer 11 v 11 on a fucking big grass rectangle, sent into battle following rousing team talks by Lawrie, Clough or whoever. It’s won and lost by nerds operating spreadsheets.

Another thing that gets on my tits is defending corners (and I noticed this with Stoke again yesterday as well as us). 21 players camped around the penalty area for the incoming corner. Stick one perhaps two or your quicker forwards on the halfway line. That’ll immediately take two of their players back. Channon would always stand near the centre circle flanked by two defenders, can’t imagine him coming back to defend the corner. 

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, Badger said:

But you have to realise that isn’t the modern way Whitey in the game of Xg etc.

The game is no longer 11 v 11 on a fucking big grass rectangle, sent into battle following rousing team talks by Lawrie, Clough or whoever. It’s won and lost by nerds operating spreadsheets.

Another thing that gets on my tits is defending corners (and I noticed this with Stoke again yesterday as well as us). 21 players camped around the penalty area for the incoming corner. Stick one perhaps two or your quicker forwards on the halfway line. That’ll immediately take two of their players back. Channon would always stand near the centre circle flanked by two defenders, can’t imagine him coming back to defend the corner. 

More are lost than won in my opinion. 

[Baz Fl]

Not one of our attackers are physically capable of giving a center back a hard time, no power or strength and our pace is woeful. All 3 Stoke forwards looked capable of beating their marker 1v1 whilst I don’t see that in any of our group of strikers. We are not getting promoted if it’s not addressed within this remaining window. 

[Oisin]

Forgetting the various tactical combinations playing to so-and-sos strengths for one Second , what is stark to my mind is how utterly bereft of confidence they all look. Some of them may have historically impressive records at this level, but if you look up from the spreadsheet and database and watch the actual human beings, not one of them looks capable to me of spearheading a promotion campaign. 
Used more sensibly you might get a few goals out of Archer or ArmA but even a blind pig finds the odd acorn … they both look mentally done in to me.

 

We never properly replaced Ings or Fonte for that matter, and both have cost us dearly. 5 years on and we still haven’t and so it continues to cost us. Our transfer policy over the last few years has been shambolic