Formations available to CH...

[trueblue]

Probably a disaster but something experimental like:

Ryan

Duffy. Dunk. Uwe.

Bruno. Stephens. Suttner.
Pröpper

Knockaert. Murray. Izquierdo

Dunk has the ability to bring the ball out from the back and spray passes about. Stephens holds. Wing-backs can overlap with less defensive responsibility allowing the wingers to get closer to and beyond Murray. Propper either sits deep with Stephens to feed the wide men or when possible carries the ball forward. As well as Murray being our best link man, his heading ability is still important when defending set pieces.

Edit: iPhone has destroyed the formation but basically Bruno/Schelotto and Suttner as wing backs.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

Drop Stephens. Too slow and unimaginative for this level. Loses the ball far too easily. A liability.

 

[Don Tmatter]

Drop Stephens. Too slow and unimaginative for this level. Loses the ball far too easily. A liability.

Evidence so far suggests you may be right, but no competition for his place until Kayal's fit again or January.

 

[spence]

Drop Stephens. Too slow and unimaginative for this level. Loses the ball far too easily. A liability.

Drop Ryan as he has made howlers, Drop Stuttner as he has been roasted a few times, Drop Propper as he looks lethargic etc Where does it end ? The only person who warrants dropping is Ryan The rest are starting to gel now and i would leave it as it is.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

I'd be using the Liverpool system with the players we have at the moment. Knocky, Izquierdo and March as a fluid front three to break away. Propper, Stephens/Kayal, Gross in midfield. And our usual back line.

 

[neilbard]

Drop Stephens. Too slow and unimaginative for this level. Loses the ball far too easily. A liability.

Evidence so far suggests you may be right, but no competition for his place until Kayal's fit again or January.

Okay bright sparks if we drop Stephens who the f**k do we replace him with?

 

[Half Time Pies]

Nothing that I have seen from Hughton suggests to me that he will try anything experimental, he has 2 formations and it will be one of those.

I think the main player that will miss out through our inability to bring in a striker will be Gross, in my opinion you can't play him as a number 10 unless he is playing behind a striker with pace. I suspect that he will now become competition for Propper and Stephens in central midfield until January.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Probably a disaster but something experimental like:

Ryan

Duffy. Dunk. Uwe.

Bruno. Stephens. Suttner.
Pröpper

Knockaert. Murray. Izquierdo

Dunk has the ability to bring the ball out from the back and spray passes about. Stephens holds. Wing-backs can overlap with less defensive responsibility allowing the wingers to get closer to and beyond Murray. Propper either sits deep with Stephens to feed the wide men or when possible carries the ball forward. As well as Murray being our best link man, his heading ability is still important when defending set pieces.

Edit: iPhone has destroyed the formation but basically Bruno/Schelotto and Suttner as wing backs.

Not sure you would get away with playing only 2 central midfielders in the Prem.

 

[trueblue]

Not sure you would get away with playing only 2 central midfielders in the Prem.

Probably right. But with a back 3 (one of whom can attack the ball) screened by 2 midfielders still plenty of cover. Plus the wing backs. So that's actually an extra player in the team that can tackle - and we'd be defending further up the pitch. Murray/Hemed could drop deep to link things and actually be involved, the idea being to get the players with more pace running beyond the central striker as Knocky & Izquierdo can both score goals. If Murray/Hemed are on the defender's shoulder that's mostly going to be a waste of time so was just trying to think of a way round that.

It'll be really interesting to see what our proper manager comes up with!

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

Okay bright sparks if we drop Stephens who the f**k do we replace him with?

Would Sidwell be any worse?

 

[Eddiespearritt]

Can someone google the word clusterf.ck for me

 

[neilbard]

Would Sidwell be any worse?

Probably not, Stephens in my opinion is not the sole problem, Mr. Propper is not putting a shift in at the moment.

All will be well when he gets to grips with the Premier League.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Probably right. But with a back 3 (one of whom can attack the ball) screened by 2 midfielders still plenty of cover. Plus the wing backs. So that's actually an extra player in the team that can tackle - and we'd be defending further up the pitch. Murray/Hemed could drop deep to link things and actually be involved, the idea being to get the players with more pace running beyond the central striker as Knocky & Izquierdo can both score goals. If Murray/Hemed are on the defender's shoulder that's mostly going to be a waste of time so was just trying to think of a way round that.

It'll be really interesting to see what our proper manager comes up with!

Fair play but in that setup I reckon you would need an attacking MC in the hole rather than a forward dropping off as you need a creative force to play the killer balls to the players running beyond. To be honest I can't see CH getting too flamboyant with his setup so I guess we will be left with a 4-4-1-1

 

[Rod Marsh]

From the moment last season finished I assumed we would play a 4-2-3-1 formation this season. One because I didn't believe we could get anywhere near dominating a midfield with just 2 in there. Secondly, buying strikers is both expensive and difficult. Looking at the squad we have now I still think that this would suit us. We could have any number of combinations of the 3 players behind a single focal striker.

 

[Machiavelli]

4-6-0

But pack the 6 with March, Izquiedo and AK. Break at pace, and win a dozen PL games. Simple.

4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1 (which aren't too far apart) are the likeliest, but I quite like the option you suggest.

 

[Machiavelli]

Where on earth did you find that picture?

What is the backstory?

I haven't seen it before, but the backstory appears to be related to the fact that the red team are kicking off, and that may well confuse the opposition as to where the ball is going to be launched, enabling the attacking team to pack one area with more players than their opponents, thereby increasing their likelihood of retaining the ball in the final third of the pitch.

 

[trueblue]

Fair play but in that setup I reckon you would need an attacking MC in the hole rather than a forward dropping off as you need a creative force to play the killer balls to the players running beyond. To be honest I can't see CH getting too flamboyant with his setup so I guess we will be left with a 4-4-1-1

On tonight's performance, Propper would fit well in an attacking midfield role.