How many tactical mistakes is Adkins allowed?

[Turkish]

I've just seen Adkins interviewed on SouthToday.

 

Apparently we're good at home, and away we're going to attack in the hope that we win 4 games.

 

Absolute madness in my opinion. Very simplistic and not good enough. It looks like we're going to continue making the same mistakes through the whole season.

 

To be honest, I couldn't really believe what I was hearing.

 

'hope' sums it up for me. Madness.

[Dalek2003]

I think the problem was that Everton thought they were playing Liverpool.

[Bearsy]

Against the teams what ain't top six quality we're conceding an average of 1.5 goals per game and scoring an average of 2 goals per game.

[The Kraken]

If we win 4 away and get the job done at home what would be the problem with that? Would you rather we went away from home looking for a draw? We'd need 12 of those to get the same points tally.

 

That statement is all very well when we're actually "getting the job done" away from home. Right now we're a very, very long away from that. Yes, we've played sides in the top seven, but to date we've played 3 away games and conceded 12 goals. That's very poor in anyone's book.

 

West Ham away will of course be a truer test of our fortunes on the road; however I do think that the team as a whole need to learn how to shut up shop away from home. Relying on us outscoring the opposition may work at home by being more attacking; away from home I believe we'll just keep getting battered.

[Dig Dig]

That statement is all very well when we're actually "getting the job done" away from home. Right now we're a very, very long away from that. Yes, we've played sides in the top seven, but to date we've played 3 away games and conceded 12 goals. That's very poor in anyone's book.

 

West Ham away will of course be a truer test of our fortunes on the road; however I do think that the team as a whole need to learn how to shut up shop away from home. Relying on us outscoring the opposition may work at home by being more attacking; away from home I believe we'll just keep getting battered.

 

Lets see how we do in the next 6-7 games. If we continue to "get battered" (which I don't think we have been except for Arsenal) then it will probably be a good indication that we'll go down.

 

Plenty of teams in the bottom half of the table would concede that number of goals against City, Arsenal and Everton away. These games won't define our season. If we can get close to 10 wins at home plus the 4 away which Adkins in targeting we'll be fine.

[Dig Dig]

'hope' sums it up for me. Madness.

 

Another Cortese tactic?

[Turkish]

And the fact of the matter is we've been battered away from home. People will point to the man City game as being 20 minutes away from glory but in reality City missed a penalty and four or five other good chances and at one point they had 80% possession, to use Avenues reasoning on another day d they'd taken all their chances we could have lost 8-2. Now obviously I'm not saying we should have for a result there but the fact is we've been comfortably beaten on 3 occasion, admittedly by 3 very good sides but it's not as if we've helped ourselves as we've been very open, very easy to score against and made a lot of individual errors. Let's not forget one season in the mid 90s we stayed up on goal difference, let's hope out hopeful away tactics don't come back to haunt us on that account.

[Turkish]

Another Cortese tactic?

 

Who knows? I struggling a bit as we keep being told Adkins is a fantastic, intelligent manager yet it doesn't seem very intelligent to me to keep playing a formation which isn't working with players not suited to it.

[Dig Dig]

And the fact of the matter is we've been battered away from home. People will point to the man City game as being 20 minutes away from glory but in reality City missed a penalty and four or five other good chances and at one point they had 80% possession, to use Avenues reasoning on another day d they'd taken all their chances we could have lost 8-2. Now obviously I'm not saying we should have for a result there but the fact is we've been comfortably beaten on 3 occasion, admittedly by 3 very good sides but it's not as if we've helped ourselves as we've been very open, very easy to score against and made a lot of individual errors. Let's not forget one season in the mid 90s we stayed up on goal difference, let's hope out hopeful away tactics don't come back to haunt us on that account.

 

Don't be ridiculous...no team scores all their chances. Saying it could have been 8-2 if such and such had scored is idiotic

[Turkish]

Don't be ridiculous...no team scores all their chances. Saying it could have been 8-2 if such and such had scored is idiotic

 

Hence why I clearly said using Avenues logic.

[Dig Dig]

Who knows? I struggling a bit as we keep being told Adkins is a fantastic, intelligent manager yet it doesn't seem very intelligent to me to keep playing a formation which isn't working with players not suited to it.

 

Only the self appointed intelligent posters can relate to Adkins tactics. You'll just have to wait and see

[mulletsaint]

Can you explain what formation he should have started with yesterday? I keep seeing it trotted out that he got it wrong yesterday, but not one poster who has criticized it has given a valid alternative.

 

Puncheon has had a knock all week, so has Mayuka, Morgan was out. What we started with was the best we could have put out in a tweaked formation.

 

I often find myself agreeing with you but I think in this case the formation added to our problems. Those on the match thread crying that JWP isn't ready for prem footy obviously haven't seen the other matches this season. However expecting him and Davis to control the midfield with Fellaini in there was bloody stupid. No matter what you think about his quality or lack of it, putting Chaplow in there with them would have added energy and bite, someone to ruffle feathers and not give their mids a moments peace. That would also have allowed us to set up more similarly to how we've been playing this season. As I also said on the match day thread, I'd rather have had a hungry youngster or even SDR on the bench than someone who wasn't fit enough to feature.

 

I love Adkins and am willing to give him time but there's no denying that some of his decisions have contributed to some of our early season problems.

[mulletsaint]

Only the self appointed intelligent posters can relate to Adkins tactics. You'll just have to wait and see

 

I gather with that rather *****y comment you are merely attempting to prove your lack of intelligence?

[Dig Dig]

I gather with that rather *****y comment you are merely attempting to prove your lack of intelligence?

 

Don't be a ****, it was a joke FFS

[S-Clarke]

I often find myself agreeing with you but I think in this case the formation added to our problems. Those on the match thread crying that JWP isn't ready for prem footy obviously haven't seen the other matches this season. However expecting him and Davis to control the midfield with Fellaini in there was bloody stupid. No matter what you think about his quality or lack of it, putting Chaplow in there with them would have added energy and bite, someone to ruffle feathers and not give their mids a moments peace. That would also have allowed us to set up more similarly to how we've been playing this season. As I also said on the match day thread, I'd rather have had a hungry youngster or even SDR on the bench than someone who wasn't fit enough to feature.

 

I love Adkins and am willing to give him time but there's no denying that some of his decisions have contributed to some of our early season problems.

 

I accept your points, and I do think Chaplow was probably the only viable alternative yesterday - but I think that's kind of scratching at the bottom of our squad if I'm honest. He's full of energy, but always on the edge of being sent off, or giving away silly fouls. Not sure he'd have been the best in the circumstances yesterday If i'm honest, and other than that we had no real alternative. It does show that with a few injures, the midfield area which was pretty well stocked, starts to look quite thin.

[Thedelldays]

I accept your points, and I do think Chaplow was probably the only viable alternative yesterday - but I think that's kind of scratching at the bottom of our squad if I'm honest. He's full of energy, but always on the edge of being sent off, or giving away silly fouls. Not sure he'd have been the best in the circumstances yesterday If i'm honest, and other than that we had no real alternative. It does show that with a few injures, the midfield area which was pretty well stocked, starts to look quite thin.

personally...agains the better teams..home and more so away (even against the lesser teams away) we should play with system we had against Man U at home...far less gung-ho and SHOULD offer more solidity in midfield...

 

if that means dropping Lallana at times for it for a more pacey puncheon, then so be it....

[S-Clarke]

personally...agains the better teams..home and more so away (even against the lesser teams away) we should play with system we had against Man U at home...far less gung-ho and SHOULD offer more solidity in midfield...

 

if that means dropping Lallana at times for it for a more pacey puncheon, then so be it....

 

I think that's the formation we are evolving to.

 

What I can see is this...

 

 

----------GK------------

 

------CB -----CB---------

 

WBR --------------WBL

 

-------CM----CM--------

 

AMR------AMC----AML--

 

-----------ST----------

[mulletsaint]

Don't be a ****, it was a joke FFS

 

One of those jokes that's also having a pop at posters you disagree with? Excuse me while I change my pants.

[Dig Dig]

One of those jokes that's also having a pop at posters you disagree with? Excuse me while I change my pants.

 

Well Turkish coined the term which is why I used it in a reply to him. I'm sure if he minded he would have said so. I suggest you do go change your pants, weirdo.

[mulletsaint]

Well Turkish coined the term which is why I used it in a reply to him. I'm sure if he minded he would have said so. I suggest you do go change your pants, weirdo.

 

Done and dusted.

[Thedelldays]

I think that's the formation we are evolving to.

 

What I can see is this...

 

 

----------GK------------

 

------CB -----CB---------

 

WBR --------------WBL

 

-------CM----CM--------

 

AMR------AMC----AML--

 

-----------ST----------

just think that is too gung-hp for us at the mo against most teams in this league....more so away.....against Man U...we had 3 CMs...and it worked a treat for 87 mins against Van Persie and co...

[mulletsaint]

I accept your points, and I do think Chaplow was probably the only viable alternative yesterday - but I think that's kind of scratching at the bottom of our squad if I'm honest. He's full of energy, but always on the edge of being sent off, or giving away silly fouls. Not sure he'd have been the best in the circumstances yesterday If i'm honest, and other than that we had no real alternative. It does show that with a few injures, the midfield area which was pretty well stocked, starts to look quite thin.

 

I think I'm less ****ed that he seemed to start with the wrong team/formation and more that he seemed resigned to the result, waiting far too long to make the substitutions.

[Turkish]

Quite how we've gone from the well drilled side that played some top stuff last season to this disorganised mess is beyond me. I posted a number of times during last season and over the summer that we didn't get many points last season when we needed to be solid defensively and often gave away sloppy goals, of course I was shouted down and told I was being negative and to go an support some else. Clearly Nige agreed with me as he wanted to bring in defenders and goal custodians so something is amiss there.

 

The other thing I find odd is that we are persisting with a formation that isn't working and we don't have the players to be effective playing it. We keep making the same mistakes and being undone by the same things. The big worry for me is that 7 of the last 9 goals conceded away from home have been in the first half, not when we've finally crumbled after a vallient defensive display, been worn down by great attacking play or been caught on the break as we went for a winner. We've conceded early which says to me team aren't set up correctly and at the back is bluntly a disorganised mess.

 

We keep being told Nige is a fantastic, intelligent manager, but it doesn't seem very intelligent to me to persist with a formaiton that we don't have the players to execute properly and to keep being undone by the same things. So either he isn't as intelligent and fantastic as we've built him up too be, or someone else is dictating the formation.

[Turkish]

N/t

Edited 1 October, 2012 by Turkish
Duplicate post

[Thedelldays]

Good point about formations...

 

The more I think about it and look at other teams, the more it seems nigel is getting it wrong

 

We are shipping too many goals and I think for most games, we need to play 3 CMs.... Like we did against man u..

 

That is not gaston or lallana as one of them... But these out wide.

 

If that means lallana being dropped sometimes, then so be it...

 

We are far too open and yet we continue to be..

 

Of course there are games and times where we have to be bit most of the time.... No

[Turkish]

Good point about formations...

 

The more I think about it and look at other teams, the more it seems nigel is getting it wrong

 

We are shipping too many goals and I think for most games, we need to play 3 CMs.... Like we did against man u..

 

That is not gaston or lallana as one of them... But these out wide.

 

If that means lallana being dropped sometimes, then so be it...

 

We are far too open and yet we continue to be..

 

Of course there are games and times where we have to be bit most of the time.... No

 

Which brings me onto Lallana. Now correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Nige bang on about his new central role during preseason, which lasted about two games before he was back on the wing. Yes I know he drifts in times but essentially we set out with him playing wide left, when we'd prepared all pre season it seemed for him to play in the middle.

[The Kraken]

We keep being told Nige is a fantastic, intelligent manager, but it doesn't seem very intelligent to me to persist with a formaiton that we don't have the players to execute properly and to keep being undone by the same things. So either he isn't as intelligent and fantastic as we've built him up too be, or someone else is dictating the formation.

 

I think at home the formation can work; in fact I hope we continue with it for the Fulham game, I'd have Lallana on the left and Mayuka on the right.

 

Away from home, much less so. I think there's a case for setting up with a strong midfield 3 and only one of Lallana and Ramirez. There's not a great deal of options at the moment, but away from home against decent sides we have to be a lot tighter, and eventually I'd prefer to see someone like Jack Cork at RM and perhaps even someone like Fox or dare I say it Dickson at LM. Blatantly we don't have the personnel to play a tight system away from home, which as you say is why we're getting absolutely thumped so very often.

[Chez]

personally...agains the better teams..home and more so away (even against the lesser teams away) we should play with system we had against Man U at home...far less gung-ho and SHOULD offer more solidity in midfield...

 

if that means dropping Lallana at times for it for a more pacey puncheon, then so be it....

 

If I was looking for a player more pace than Lallana, Puncheon would be down there with Fox and Butterfield on my list.

[Chez]

The other thing I find odd is that we are persisting with a formation that isn't working and we don't have the players to be effective playing it.

you may have posted it elsewhere, but please tell me what formation did you have in mind and using what players?

[rudi7s]

I haven't read all of the above but I think the OP is ridiculous to assume that all losses were down to Adkins and in the one win he did everything perfectly.

 

He is one of the brightest young managers in English football and wants to play attacking football, and although he is not faultless whatsoever we cannot as fans keep questioning him after a defeat, of which there have been 5. I highlight the number of defeats because I genuinely believe in 4 of those games we could not have expected anything more. We have had imo only 2 winnable games.

 

I understand the way the United game went we should have come away with more, we didn't and the result went as predicted. But give this young side time to grow together, and Adkins the patience he deserves.

[Chez]

Good point about formations...

 

The more I think about it and look at other teams, the more it seems nigel is getting it wrong

 

We are shipping too many goals and I think for most games, we need to play 3 CMs.... Like we did against man u..

 

That is not gaston or lallana as one of them... But these out wide.

 

If that means lallana being dropped sometimes, then so be it...

 

We are far too open and yet we continue to be..

 

Of course there are games and times where we have to be bit most of the time.... No

Isn't our formation problem similar to that when we had the two dutch fellas in charge. Lots of bodies in the middle to dominate possession, but fullbacks left woefully exposed to a 2 on 1 allowing pinpoint crosses to come in that are almost impossible to defend against? I have to say I loved seeing us dominate possession (when the Dutch were in charge) but 4-4-2 made us much tougher to beat, if reducing our ability to control games. The solution therefore is to ensure that the left and right midfield are just that, midfielders, not wingers or free roaming ball players, they are midfielders that get up and down. Whether we support those with 2 or 3 in the middle and whether one of those is a luxury player is a different matter. Protect the fullbacks seems to the order of the day. Well that's one theory...

[The Kraken]

Isn't our formation problem similar to that when we had the two dutch fellas in charge. Lots of bodies in the middle to dominate possession, but fullbacks left woefully exposed to a 2 on 1 allowing pinpoint crosses to come in that are almost impossible to defend against? I have to say I loved seeing us dominate possession (when the Dutch were in charge) but 4-4-2 made us much tougher to beat, if reducing our ability to control games. The solution therefore is to ensure that the left and right midfield are just that, midfielders, not wingers or free roaming ball players, they are midfielders that get up and down. Whether we support those with 2 or 3 in the middle and whether one of those is a luxury player is a different matter. Protect the fullbacks seems to the order of the day. Well that's one theory...

 

The problem is that, right now, we have a sincere shortage of those types of player.

[Chez]

We have had imo only 2 winnable games.

 

a bit defeatest isn't it? I seem to recall promoted sides like Burnley and even the skates beating very good manu sides early season. I certainly didn't expect us to win all or any of these games, but I certainly hoped we might. All games are winnable. Swansea beat Man City last season and they only lost 5 league games all season.

[Chez]

The problem is that, right now, we have a sincere shortage of those types of player.

 

blast. Now I'm going to have to question the David Nugent, I mean Jay Rodriguez signing. Adkins will figure it out. Love his attack away from home and win four games concept.

[The Kraken]

blast. Now I'm going to have to question the David Nugent, I mean Jay Rodriguez signing. Adkins will figure it out. Love his attack away from home and win four games concept.

 

We're probably going to have to win 3 or 4 games away from home to stay up anyway; that's just common sense, and is what the teams who stayed up last season did. In fact Bolton got relegated after winning 6 away games.

[supersonic]

Adkins has made some very questionable tactical decisions, I'm still unconvinced by his tactical ability.

 

why change the 4-4-2 formation which worked so successfully over past 2 seasons?

why stick with 4-3-3/4-5-1 which clearly isn't working?

why stick with zonal marking which, again, isn't working

why drop Puncheon from the Everton game, one of best players this season and especially v Villa. Done more than Lallana has this season.

Why take off best 3 players v Man Utd?

Why pay £6m for a centre forward and play him on the wing?

 

The Fulham game is the biggest game of our season, fail to win and the pressure will mount. Man marking please and 2 up front at home

[sandwichsaint]

The problem is that, right now, we have a sincere shortage of those types of player.

 

And so it goes round, in ever-decreasing circles, we seem to have spunked most of our budget on strawberries and cream, and forgotten to buy a cake to put them on. And who would have it any other way? Is anyone really suggesting we should have foresaken buying Ramirez and bought Dann and Buttner instead? Perhaps we should have foresaken Myuka and bought 5m pounds worth of goalkeeper (or perhaps not as we seem to have acquired Boruc and Gazza for around 1m and now seem to be well covered in that area). Maybe we would be doing better if we had spent 25m on a complete new defence and gone in with last year's front 6, a la Gully/Hammond/Sharp etc? Those scrappy 1-0 defeats would have been sooo much more enjoyable than what we are seeing now.

 

What I see is a club, a team and a manager who are determined to do things the right way; we have in the main invested very well - for the money I think we would have been hard-pressed to have bought better than any of Clyne, Gazza, Boruc, Joshida, or Ramirez. The jury's still out on Mayuka, Davis and Rodrigues but even these three look at least good enough to be squad players at this level. What we haven't got, and it might take two or three windows to get it is genuine depth and quality in the squad, you can argue that our 'strongest' starting X1 (whatever that is?) lacks genuine quality from 1-11, hopefully over time this will become less of an issue.

 

Have to say Adkins was caught in a bit of a schit-storm on Saturday, away to a top side bang on form and without arguably two of his best players so far this season. Having to play a rookie keeper (or a failed one, or an unfit one), having to play his best RB at LB and leaving an under-cooked reserve to face one of the best opposition left-sides in the Prem, having to play a 17 year old in a two man midfield away at Goodison. A couple of injuries to regular starters (add in Cork and Lee too) and we go from passably OK to seriously under-staffed - a situation that's unlikely to change before the next window.

 

What's a manager to do? He can only play the cards he's got and 'hope' that the players do their part. In the circumstances NA's tic-tacs of aiming to win 10 home games and 4 away games make sense on one level - the side is massively loaded towards attacking and so far we seem to be creating and scoring against the best teams in the league, other things being equal we ought to be able to maintain or improve this strike rate against middle and lower table teams. Equally goals against are horrendous at this stage but we don't have to go Arsenal, or City or Everton every week (while teams around us haven't been to these places yet), a bit of 'gelling' across the back, a goalkeeping upgrade from Boruc and/or Gazza and a relatively lower level of opposition and we can start to think the goals against might start to come down.

 

What NA does have going for him is three prize assetts (RL, AL and GR) the question for me is whether they can all start in the same team? At home clearly they can, away I'm not so sure, write those three names on a team sheet and you start to ask questions of the remainder of the front 6 - who else, where else, how? Picking those three on Saturday left Davis, JW-P and Rodriques to fill in the gaps, and unsurprisingly gaps is what we got!

 

If NA had been prepared to go more left-field he could have gone with any of these combinations:

Left out AL and played Fox in front of Clyne

Played Fox at LB, shifted Clyne back to RB (with the option of playing FR in front of Clyne instead of JRod)

Bought in Hooiveld and played Joshida as a sort of screening player in front of the back four (and lost JRod from the right)

Could have played Gully on the right (or up front on his own in a Man City stylee, dropping RL or JRod to accomodate this)

Could have played Chaplow in the middle with Davis and JW-P (dropping RL. AL, GR or JR to accomodate this)

Could have played Chaplow right side instead of JR

 

These are all 'realistic' options but we don't know how many if any were considered, for what we know NA might have got out a piece of paper written AL LM, RL somewhere-up-the-front, GR somewhere-in-behind, and then set about filling up the other seven places - TBH that's what it looked like!

Maybe we would have been better with a 4-5-1 with JRod up front, tightening up in the middle and back and Lambert coming on after 60 mins (?) ... you can see the headlines now 'Adkins drops two-goal Lambo to play tyro Rod'.

 

Seemed to me NA put his 'best' 11 players out, told them to go out 'and play a game of football' and see what we could get out of it. Predictably we got slaughtered! ... but he nearly got away with it .... a bad miss from JR for 2-0, and two very presentable chances in the second half ... hence the idea of us winning 4 away games (Norwich/QPR/Swansea/WBA/Stoke/West Ham etc) isn't entirely pie-in-the-sky, if we can keep the bluddy back door shut!

 

So should NA continue to play so gung-ho? Probably not but hard to say until we have played another 6 games and see what the returns are from 6 more 'normal' games. Should we have a different side home and away? Tactics and shape-wise .. probably. Personnel-wise probably a 'yes' to that too, the three musketeers are awesome to watch and we all love them to bits but perhaps there's a case for a less is more approach away from home?

 

Anyway, carry on enjoying the season, I am!

 

It's gonna be a long one and if we can stay up then there's every chance we won't be facing this sort of start next year! A couple more additions and a season's experience for the players and the manger and we can be up where West Brom and West Ham are this time next year!

 

COYRs!

[Matthew Le God]

Adkins has made some very questionable tactical decisions, I'm still unconvinced by his tactical ability.

 

why change the 4-4-2 formation which worked so successfully over past 2 seasons?

why stick with 4-3-3/4-5-1 which clearly isn't working?

why stick with zonal marking which, again, isn't working

why drop Puncheon from the Everton game, one of best players this season and especially v Villa. Done more than Lallana has this season.

Why take off best 3 players v Man Utd?

Why pay £6m for a centre forward and play him on the wing?

 

The Fulham game is the biggest game of our season, fail to win and the pressure will mount. Man marking please and 2 up front at home

 

Switching back to man marking for corners I agree with, but do you not think the 4231 system worked well in our last home league game vs Villa? The similar 433 system worked well against Man Utd at home and it is these formations they have been working on all pre-season and into the season.

 

Did you not see what happened when we switched to 442 at home vs Wigan, they overran us in midfield.

[supersonic]

We had one good half against a VERY poor Villa side, lets not get too carried away.

 

we struggle with just 1 up front, Lambert tries his best but he needs someone up there with him, unless it's a temporary thing until Lee comes back, but I doubt it, otherwise start with Lambert/Mayuka, they worked well v Villa when came on.

 

4-3-1-2 would work best, with Ramirez playing behind 2 strikers.

 

to me, 1 striker at home is too defensive, especially in games we must be winning

[Turkish]

you may have posted it elsewhere, but please tell me what formation did you have in mind and using what players?

 

I'd stick with 4-2-3-1 at home as it worked well against Villa. Away and trying make best use of what we've got I'd got 4-5-1 which becomes 4-3-2-1 when we are attacking. I'd start with Davis and Cork LM and RM playing in a chris Marsden type role with their main job to be to be solid down the flanks and tuck inside to form a solid midfield 3 covering for the full backs when they get forward. Scniiderlin playing in front of the back 4 and Lallana and Ramirez in front of him who will be responsible for closing space down and them linking up with Lambert as an attacking 3 when going forward. Those 3 wil cause most teams problems and good enough to create 2-3 good chances a game minimum. It's then down to us to be solid and not Give away sloppy goals so we don't have to score 4 to win.

 

If everyone is fit then NC, JF, MY, DF as the back 4 JC, MS, SD, GR and AL are the midfield 5, with RL up top, as things stand with injuries and due to a bungled transfer window then I guess we are left with JWP and RC in the midfield roles instead of MS and JC. It's Alright though, we've got 2 strikers worth £10m on the bench who can't get near the team and least we can all blame Danny Fox again.

Edited 2 October, 2012 by Turkish

[Turkish]

We had one good half against a VERY poor Villa side, lets not get too carried away.

 

we struggle with just 1 up front, Lambert tries his best but he needs someone up there with him, unless it's a temporary thing until Lee comes back, but I doubt it, otherwise start with Lambert/Mayuka, they worked well v Villa when came on.

 

4-3-1-2 would work best, with Ramirez playing behind 2 strikers.

 

to me, 1 striker at home is too defensive, especially in games we must be winning

 

No place for Lallana?

[Graffito]

Switching back to man marking for corners I agree with, but do you not think the 4231 system worked well in our last home league game vs Villa? The similar 433 system worked well against Man Utd at home and it is these formations they have been working on all pre-season and into the season.

 

Did you not see what happened when we switched to 442 at home vs Wigan, they overran us in midfield.

 

It's already happening. Against Everton, Lambert man marked Fellaini.

[Barry the Badger]

to me, 1 striker at home is too defensive, especially in games we must be winning

 

Are you Mike Bassett in disguise? The good old English 4-4-2 obsession.

 

1 "striker" is not always defensive, certainly not the way we're playing it anyway.

[Wade Garrett]

I like the 4-2-3-1. We create plenty of chances from it, but defensively, it is imperative that the 2 defensive midfielders give protection to the whole back 4. It is should also be more like a 4-5-1 when we don't have the ball.

 

We need to press the ball better.

[sandwichsaint]

Good point Bearface. This little image shows our players' average positions (we're the ones on the right) http://i48.tinypic.com/3538lc2.jpg.

 

 

Interesting, didn't see this yesterday. We were pretty much playing 4-2-4. Easy to see Everton dominating down the middle of the pitch with their 6 against our 4 and a half. Everton double teaming the left and right backs, like everybody knew they would. JRod way too high to provide effective cover for our RB. Look how far apart our CHs were pulled with 3 particularly being consistently pulled away from the middle to cover Clyne. Looks like RL was effective in keeping their 6 occupied, their 5 either had a really easy afternoon or was pulled out of position by the deep-lying threat of Ramirez? Shame we didn't have somebody with pace who could take advantage of the wide open spaces, particularly down Everton's left. JRod was clearly earmarked for this role and should have scored his first half one-on-one... if we play this again then Mayuka needs to play this role (or Lee!)

 

As everybody has pretty much said - way too gung ho for an away game but very entertaining at home!

[ibizasaint]

I haven't read all of the above but I think the OP is ridiculous to assume that all losses were down to Adkins and in the one win he did everything perfectly.

 

He is one of the brightest young managers in English football and wants to play attacking football, and although he is not faultless whatsoever we cannot as fans keep questioning him after a defeat, of which there have been 5. I highlight the number of defeats because I genuinely believe in 4 of those games we could not have expected anything more. We have had imo only 2 winnable games.

 

I understand the way the United game went we should have come away with more, we didn't and the result went as predicted. But give this young side time to grow together, and Adkins the patience he deserves.

 

I agree with this

[Avenue Saint]

Hence why I clearly said using Avenues logic.

 

Having fun and games in my absence Turdish?

[Avenue Saint]

So you think moving forward once Boruc plays we'regoing to score with every opportunity we get and Boruc will keep out every chance te opposition have?

 

See it's posts like these that show how you end up spending half your life on these 'mong' boards...

 

Now be a sensible boy turds, take the 'spaz' hat off, and go back and read what I said again.

[Bucks Saint]

Most of the faults so far are much more about the players used, and their discipline in sticking to the opposition when we dont have the ball, than the formation

Edited 2 October, 2012 by Bucks Saint

[kpturner]

See it's posts like these that show how you end up spending half your life on these 'mong' boards...

 

Now be a sensible boy turds, take the 'spaz' hat off, and go back and read what I said again.

I find it shocking that a self proclaimed God fearing person like yourself would use language like, "mong" and "spaz". Disgraceful.