Last 5 league ganes - 1/1/1/0/0

[Machiavelli]

I think the injury thing is a bit of an excuse at times. For example- there were several games in a row when we could not score and Barnes was left up front on his ow. The madness for me was that we had Lita sat on the bench doing NOWT. Get two upfront!

My worry is that when CMS is back (or Hoskins) then they still won't get a look in because of Oscar's continuation of the one up front.

Ulloa up top with either CMS, Obika, Hoskins, Orlandi or anyone ATTACK minded would be so much better.

It is all very well praising our defence but the reason we leak so few goals is that we do not flood forward at pace leaving gaps. I watched the Derby game with a few non Albion mates and they said we were one of the most boring teams they had ever seen- sadly, I had to agree

There are many on NSC who agree with you that we should play two up front. Oscar disagrees with you. What you and others are really saying is that we should change our manager. I disagree.
We're doing the best we can with the players we have available, which is not much given injuries, sales and our player of the season for the last two seasons unable to play.
I agree that Man City have been a revelation this season, but that comes from consistent over-investment in a squad for five or six seasons. You're going to get bags of goals if you play with Aguero and Negredo up-top, the choice of Navas, Silva and Nasri out wide, and Yaya Toure (surely one of the best midfielders of the past decade or two) bombing forward and bagging double figures each and every season. Remember though that City are owned by a kleptocrat that's sitting on a great big pile of oil, and is part of a bunch of kleptocrats that's not only spending the money that they've accrued from this pile of oil on vanity projects (City, for instance) but also from levels of worker exploitation that only the slave trade can rival, which has led to 185 Nepalese workers dying whilst building World Cup stadia (another vanity project) in the last year alone.

 

[keaton]

I don't think we need to play two up front we just need a midfielder closer to our striker so the striker is less isolated. Orlandi did it last year, and I thought Barnes was going to do this when Ulloa got fit.

 

[Wilko]

There are many on NSC who agree with you that we should play two up front. Oscar disagrees with you. What you and others are really saying is that we should change our manager. I disagree.
We're doing the best we can with the players we have available, which is not much given injuries, sales and our player of the season for the last two seasons unable to play.
.

I am not saying change the manager at all. It would be rather stubborn of any manager to utterly refuse to change a system.

As I mention earlier- I do not think we are doing the best we can with the players available- most games we start with one upfront and a striker on the bench so there are opportunities to play with 2 strikers. A clear example for me is the complete and utter misuse/underuse of Lita.

As others have mentioned- Ulloa up top on his own if you have Lua Lua one side and Bucley on the other. Ulloa up front with a couple of plodders either side is not going to work. No wonder Leo is getting frustrated, he looks utterly dejected at the moment and with good reason.

 

[Kevlar]

we are now 17th in the league on goals scored.
Still in a good position for play offs but we do have to score more
to get there.
we do not play 1 up front we play 3
unfortunately none of the 3 attackers are scoring enough at the moment.
same goes for midfield bar crofts
Real Madrid, Barcelona ,Bayern Munich ,German national team etc etc
score plenty of goals playing 4 3 3
Dave,Jake and Kazenga have had a decent amount of game time
without producing enough goals and assists .
I think it is time to give Andrea,Solly and Kemy more opportunities
to do better

 

[Machiavelli]

I am not saying change the manager at all. It would be rather stubborn of any manager to utterly refuse to change a system.

As I mention earlier- I do not think we are doing the best we can with the players available- most games we start with one upfront and a striker on the bench so there are opportunities to play with 2 strikers. A clear example for me is the complete and utter misuse/underuse of Lita.

As others have mentioned- Ulloa up top on his own if you have Lua Lua one side and Bucley on the other. Ulloa up front with a couple of plodders either side is not going to work. No wonder Leo is getting frustrated, he looks utterly dejected at the moment and with good reason.

I'm just of the view that we have a rather stubborn manager, and he's attached to a 4-3-3/4-5-1 system, and not attached to a 4-4-2. He does, however, introduce fluidity and nuances to his preferred system according to a range of circumstances (player availability, home/away, how the match is going, etc).
Agree with you about Ulloa though, although as you mention he can play, and has flourished, in Oscar's preferred system. I'm confident this will change once the squad gets settled, which will hopefully be in less than 60 hours time.

 

[The Large One]

Ulloa doesn't play 'on his own' - or at least, the system, when working, ensures that he doesn't. He has one or two supporting midfielders, and - on a good day - a pair of kamikaze wingers. As has been pointed out, there are many reasons this season as to why this has not been able to put to its full use.

Having two strikers doesn't necessarily cater for the 'isolation' problem on its own, not when you have four defenders back surrounding them - that's where the midfield comes in to support. And every player has more than the one role that their 'forward' or 'winger' or 'midfield' sobriquet would suggest.

Rinus Michels, the coach of the Dutch World Cup squad in 1974 stated that 'Total Football' will only work '... if you have 6 or 7 World-Class players'. While we don't need that to get out of the Championship, we do need players who can play to the system much better.

I don't think the problem is the system, it's the application of it.

 

[leigull]

As said before, the system and formation is not the issue. We are creating more than enough good quality chances, we're just not finishing well enough. Ulloa's lack of form isn't helping either as he's not holding it up well enough at the moment to allow the midfield to push on in support. Lost count the number of times Cantor said Ulloa's touch was poor last night.

People complaining at one up front being the problem, are way off the mark.

 

[bhawoddy]

And that Charlton game was played on a Sunday League pitch so a Sunday League result was to be expected...

You think sunday league games finish 0-0 I'd say 1 out of every hundred games on a Sunday will be 0-0

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

You think sunday league games finish 0-0 I'd say 1 out of every hundred games on a Sunday will be 0-0

What are you on about ? Charlton beat us 3-2.......

 

[LamieRobertson]

I felt Claridge was a bit unfair that day..both wide men injured...Barnes just sold..Ulloa/Orlandi just returned from injury and us being the away side ...he talked about how few goals we had scored away from home and yet in previous weeks had acknowledged how bad injuries had effected our forward line..hey ho

I'll add to that Crofts being injured

 

[bhawoddy]

What are you on about ? Charlton beat us 3-2.......

Hmmmm, ure exactly right. What was I Thinking?.? Apologies.

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

Hmmmm, ure exactly right. What was I Thinking?.? Apologies.

:
You were thinking of the home game vs Charlton last season - which was 0-0 !! Though the Amex has never been a Sunday league pitch

 

[Lethargic]

Playing 1 up front is fine if you have pace in the rest of the team be it physical or mental pace and we don't at present. Our defence is slow as is our midfield we need an injection of pace or get used to winning 1-0.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

Ulloa doesn't play 'on his own' - or at least, the system, when working, ensures that he doesn't. He has one or two supporting midfielders, and - on a good day - a pair of kamikaze wingers. As has been pointed out, there are many reasons this season as to why this has not been able to put to its full use.

Having two strikers doesn't necessarily cater for the 'isolation' problem on its own, not when you have four defenders back surrounding them - that's where the midfield comes in to support. And every player has more than the one role that their 'forward' or 'winger' or 'midfield' sobriquet would suggest.

Rinus Michels, the coach of the Dutch World Cup squad in 1974 stated that 'Total Football' will only work '... if you have 6 or 7 World-Class players'. While we don't need that to get out of the Championship, we do need players who can play to the system much better.

I don't think the problem is the system, it's the application of it.

You clearly weren't there last night (I'm sure I couldn't have missed you in a crowd that sparse). Ulloa was on his own,solo,isolated, party of one, on his tod, Billy no mates, virtually a pariah.

 

[warmleyseagull]

According to football league stats we are 9th in Championship for shooting - this does not smack of lack of creating chances, more lack of finishing. See http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/ClubShooting/0,,10794~20137,00.html

 

[Birdie Boy]

Add in birmingham who were on a q0 match unbeaten run and had just run there last 4 away games..

I am not one for pointing out spelling mistakes, errors etc. but I am not sure if Birmingham were on a 10, 20, 30 or better unbeaten run. Any of these is good considering they ran from St Andrews to Brighton, Blackburn, Wigan and Bournemouth!

For the record, they have just lost 4 of their last 4 home games (and all 4 were their last 4 games including FA cup) and they lost their last away match at, you guessed it, Brighton!

 

[keaton]

I am not one for pointing out spelling mistakes, errors etc. but I am not sure if Birmingham were on a 10, 20, 30 or better unbeaten run. Any of these is good considering they ran from St Andrews to Brighton, Blackburn, Wigan and Bournemouth!

For the record, they have just lost 4 of their last 4 home games (and all 4 were their last 4 games including FA cup) and they lost their last away match at, you guessed it, Brighton!

BUt i'm pretty sure when we played them they were unbeaten in ten (the longest in the league at the time)

 

[Perkino]

It's no suprise that the teams scoring the most amount of goals in both the premiership and championship play 2 up front.

To challenge for promotion you'll need about 80 goals a season, unless you have an exceptionally gifted and disciplined team who can win 1-0 each week, which is a big ask from 1 striker and the midfield in support unless you have a couple of Lampard like players who score 20+ a season from outside the box