Two strikers

[Ricky Redstripe]

Two strikers

 

I don't need to put anything else, when will anyone at the club realise we need two strikers on the pitch together to win a bloody game of football?

[nta786]

Southampton

 

13 McCarthy

2 Soares

5 Stephens

6 Hoedt

21 Bertrand

11 Tadic

18 Lemina

23 Højbjerg

22 Redmond

10 Austin

20 Gabbiadini

 

 

 

The above line up is the one we played against West Ham 19 days ago. It had 2 up front. It worked out as a 3-0 defeat.

However, I would have been inclined to go for a 352/3412 in the last 10 minutes.

[Ricky Redstripe]

And we've played with 1 up front the rest of the season and look where it's got us

[Saints foreva]

Long looked knackered to be fair.

[Dusic]

Our central defenders are ****e and central midfielders not mobile enough.

 

Every time this season we have added a second striker we have got worse.

 

Thats why we don't do it, and why very few PL teams do.

 

Its not about two strikers, its about getting a solid base of possession and being able to get the wide players and full backs pushed on. When we do that we look much better but our CBs are so poor that they need a lot of protection.

[Bad Wolf]

Tried two strikers at West Ham. Got battered in midfield. Two strikers would only work at older grounds with smaller pitches.

[Fabrice29]

Do you honestly think 2 strikers was a wise idea last night? I get that we needed to win and go for it some more but to do that we need the ball. We couldn't get the ball in the second half. As someone has said above we've been worse with 2 strikers all season. If we had put Austin with Long last night we'd have dropped even deeper and lost even more of the ball. There's much bigger issues than not playing 2 strikers.

 

If we could put Long back into JWP's position and Austin up top then I'd be happy but maybe the staff aren't confident about that. It certainly takes away set pieces and Cedric as attacking options but it might be worth the gamble against Bournemouth but to play them alongside each other as strikers is suicidal.

[Ricky Redstripe]

Oh well, plod along with one up front then every game, score no goals, sneak a point , end up with33 points get relegated, lose £100m, flog anyone half decent, ffs, we've got to go on the attack and take the pressure off the defence, if there's no plan to go with two up front even for the last 10 minutes of a game why not fill the bench with all defenders if you've got no plan to use strikers

[Matthew Le God]

Oh well, plod along with one up front then every game, score no goals, sneak a point , end up with33 points get relegated, lose £100m, flog anyone half decent, ffs, we've got to go on the attack and take the pressure off the defence, if there's no plan to go with two up front even for the last 10 minutes of a game why not fill the bench with all defenders if you've got no plan to use strikers

 

We came 6th in 2016 only playing one striker. It isn't the number of strikers that is the problem.

[egg]

People seem to forget that if we put another man up front we have to take a man from elsewhere. Our defence is shlte so 3 CB is sensible. Take one of them away then we lose that cover at CB and limit the ability of the full backs to get forward. We're also shlte in midfield and take a man out of there we'll get completely overrun and our shlte defence will be even more exposed.

 

Short explanation is we're shlte but less shlte with extra men at CB and in midfield.

[Hatch]

we need 4 strikers..

 

 

and 15 defenders.

[egg]

we need 4 strikers..

 

 

and 15 defenders.

?That's the solution Hatch. 12 across the middle just to be sure.

[Saint Garrett]

We're not good enough at the back to play 2 up top, and we need some players to give the two strikers the ball if we were to do it. When we've gone two up top we've been absolutely terrible and cant get the ball so makes no sense to do it.

 

Only way it's plausible is to go 3-5-2/5-3-2, however the last few weeks we've been playing pretty much a 3-4-2-1.

 

The issue isn't not having enough strikers on the pitch, it's more about getting the players forward more, but I can't help but feel that the players aren't fit enough. The amount of times Long has got the ball in the last few games and the only one within 25 yards of him is Tadic. The midfield isn't mobile enough, and the "wing backs" have pretty much played as full backs. It's been lagely the same all season, and we just dont get enough players forward, but probably because our defenders cant be trusted to not f*ck up and give a goal away.