I don't really care what formation we play for the rest of the season. However we need to take Capoue and Deeney out of the starting line-up as both have been way off the pace. Capoue remains an option but needs a rocket and as for Deeney, maybe off the bench for the last 15 if we are chasing a game. What the last 20 minutes at Chelsea showed is that we need more pace and movement up front. Which means we need Welbeck, who showed more in those last 30 mins than Deeney has shown in four games. We need to stop with the hoof-ball and play through the midfield. We need to get Sarr further forward and closer to the centre forward Play with a second forward which may mean (I can't believe I'm suggesting this) bringing back Gray who at least has movement which will create space for others. Plus he usually gets 2-3 chances per game. I would even suggest involving Holebas in-front of Masina. He used to be a winger and even though his legs are shot he looks like he cares and always wants to attack. Given this what do you think of teh following options?
I like the look of the 3-5-2. I always thought that Masina could be very handy on the left side of a three. Not sure Pearson will change the formation that drastically though. Holebas on the left is what's been going through my head. Atleast he would display some passion and fight imo.
I think the 4-2-3-1 when Deufoleu is fit makes sense, as we have two quick wingers/strikers. With just Sarr it's too easy to mark him out of the game and eliminate any threat. Personally I'd prefer us to focus on grinding out results than playing expansive football right now, so I'd avoid the 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and definitely 3-5-2. 4-4-2 would potentially leave us overrun in the midfield too. I think a boring, narrow 4-4-1-1 is what we need right now: Foster Kiko? Kabasele Dawson Masina Pussetto? Doucoure Chalobah Hughes Sarr Welbeck Solidify the midfield, pace up front and give Sarr a bit of freedom to target whichever defender he likes. Vs a CB he should have a significant pace advantage, compared to Vs a full back who are usually a bit faster and better at 1-on-1s. Plus it'll stop our best players being out wide crossing for players who don't want to challenge for a header.
What we should have done, at least it was obvious to me, was play our 11 most technical players, play ‘keep ball’, and aim for 0-0 draws.
That basically is a narrowish 4-4-2 though, with Sarr running the right channel and Welbeck the left. It's pretty much the same setup Southampton play with Ings and Long. I'd be tempted to go for that setup against Newcastle, though with Cleverley instead of Pussetto, but it's probably too negative for Norwich.
I was picturing Sarr would drop back to form a 5 without possession, whilst Welbeck stays up top as an outlet. I'd tend to agree it's negative for Norwich, but I can't see us keeping a clean sheet with 3 attacking players on the pitch and I can't see us scoring more than one goal. In other words, paradoxically I think if we are too attacking we're more likely to draw.
The 4-3-3 you mentioned was my team of choice v Norwich on other thread. Minus Holebas, Pedro, Dawson.
Norwich are a very different proposition to Burnley I know, but seeing how shambolic we were there, I'd be wary of playing 4-4-2, it looks as though the players just weren't up to speed with it. Maybe go with a 3-5-2, but if it were up to me, I'd go with the usual 4-2-3-1 with Welbeck up top and Sarr and Pedro on the wings. Risky I know, but I have faith that Pedro will be more of a handful than Pereyra which would free up Sarr hopefully. Welbeck out wide isn't a disaster in an of itself, but it automatically means Deeney and hoofball...
Here's our roadmap. https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p08jyxn7/if-you-want-to-succeed-stop-trying-to-win ...although I'm not sure that we can't already accuse the squad of not trying to win.
I don't like a back 3 as we really don't have two decent wingbacks. So what happens is we play with 5 defenders and get even more negative. We need width in attack and people to attack the end line. Sarr and Welbeck will do that, but I don't like Welbeck out wide. If we want to stop playing hoofball, we need to do at least 1 thing and probably 2. The one thing that MUST happen is we play the back line higher. We should be able to do this against Norwich with an acceptable level of risk. The second thing that should happen is to start Welbeck - but even without that if we're playing higher the passes should be more on the ground and into the channels. So..... Foster 4 in the back: Femenia (any 2 of Kabasele, Catchcat, Dawson) Masina Hughes Doucoure Sarr Pereyra/Cleverley Pedro/Pussetto/Quina?/Penaranda? Welbeck Whoever plays left wing you tell them to run their socks off until they vomit a lung. Once that happens, bring on the next one. But we need the width and people attacking the end line for negative balls into the box.... and for Doucoure and Pereyra/Cleverley to clean up. You tell Hughes to be a pitbull in the middle and not to let Pukki get a sniff of the ball. If he gets tired, bring on one of the others - probably Capoue. He likes to kick people when he's irritiated, which he likely would be. As the other blokes tire (and we presumably have a lead) we can bring on the likes of: Chalobah, Deeney, Capoue (both should come on fresh and angry and put in a short shift of whatever duration) Mariappa and Holebas on the bench for emergencies p.s. I'll worry about Newcastle later... but Almiron and that Saint-Maximin fellow scare me with their pace. Masina if he's not knackered can probably slow ASM for a while, but Almiron is slippery and lightning quick. 2 holding mids might be needed for that. p.p.s. If I *did* go with a back 3, I'd be inclined to put Masina on the left side of it and use Holebas as the wingback on that side.
I know its negative but I would like to see us play 5-4-1 as quite frankly we are not good enough defensively maybe an extra man could help, it may consequently mean that we at least keep our goal difference down, which is essentially an extra point. Or we stick with the same formation but higher up the pitch and press more. Foster Kiko Kabasele Cathcart Dawson Masina Sarr Capoue Doucoure Hughes Welbeck
A bit surprised no one’s suggested 3-4-3. Didn’t we play that for at least a couple of games under Silva (at Chelsea, where we would have got at least a draw if it weren’t for a terrible refereeing mistake and Richarlison had his shooting boots on, and in the home win against Arsenal) with largely the same personnel, before we got GD?
4-2-3-1 Suits our squad best. Foster Femenia - Dawson - Kabasele - Masina Hughes - Capoue Sarr - Doucoure - Pedro Welbeck
That just sounded like Mourinho's old footballing philosophy of matches being won by whichever team makes the fewest unforced errors and thus him setting up very negatively.
That's the dream, although it may accidentally kill Welbeck, and I don't realistically see Pedro playing anything more than half hour salvos
