Saints vs Wolves

[Jack]

Did that quite a few times last season, he's more than capable. He's no 'Hajto' though...

 

I didn't miss a home game and did about half the aways, never really saw him looking to do it regularly.

He hit plenty of long balls to the front men last year, but didn't see much of him picking out a man in space with passes like that

[Itchen_block4]

The front 6 looks interesting, I'd go with this kind of formation

 

- - - - - Morgan - - - Davies - - - - -

 

Guly - - - - - Rodriguez - - - - - Lallana

 

- - - - - - - - Lambert - - - - - - - - -

 

 

It's flexible and suits the strengths of most of our better players. Guly and Lallana can play out wide and cut inside. They would also have more freedom to attack as Morgan and Davies can pull out wide and fill the space to help prevent a counter attack. Rodriguez and Lambert can swap around easily and Sharp, Lee and Guly could also play in the central role. Puncheon, Lee and Chaplow could also play on either side as well as De Ridder on the right. Cork and JWP can also play the deep central holding roles too.

 

That's basically a Lambert +1 though and despite the lines, looks a lot like the old 442 system that we're trying to move on from. Once a striker, always a striker and I think we'd have a job holding Lambert or Rodriguez back into midfield. At least on the wing, players have the freedom to make attacking runs. Lallana is a player who specialises in playing in the gaps and is comfortable playing mainly in front of defenders and playing other people in. It makes sense to have him in the middle. Swap Lallana and Rodriguez and that looks alright.

 

The 2 wingers are part of the front 3 really. We don't expect them to hug the touchlines and whip crosses in. Hopefully we can manage to get our fullbacks to do that. They'll come in and run the channels and probably get some chances while they're at it, so we want some good finishers there. As much as I love Lallana, his finishing isn't his strong suit and I'd worry that he might fluff an important chance. Because the wingers aren't shackled to the touchline, it's less important for them to play on their stronger foot and our wingers should be comfortable on both sides.

[doggface]

Totally agree, all of a sudden the left side looks weaker than the right!

[Saint Garrett]

I guess that is why we're after attacking LB's (Olsson/Buttner) who could also play LM as well as LB. Still think our RM is weak though as neither Punch or Guly are probably going to be consistent enough over the season. CB is still a must, surprised we've not moved in this market yet.