How would you set team up?

[ally_uk]

Let's talk about formation and players lads how would you setup the team and why?

For me a 4-4-2 

Perraud and KWP as fullbacks 

Salisu and Kotchap 

Left wing Sulemana 

Prowse and Lavia in centre. Lavia to keep it ticking over and Prowse to push forwards 

On the right Wing Alcaraz 

Strikers Adams n Onuachu 

[Saint Matty 76]

Che always played better with a good partner, albeit there are little to no similarities between Ings and Onuachu. Che is also quite strangely our most creative player this season in terms of chances created, so I do feel there's a chance he'd bring a little more out of Onuachu moving forward.

It all depends on the system for me, if we're sticking with what we're currently playing then I'd go with the following -

McCarthy
KWP - ABK - DCC/Salisu - Perraud
Lavia - JWP
Alcaraz - Sulemana
Onuachu - Che

However, I do think we are more suited to a 4-3-3, and if we're going down I can't help but feel like I'd like to see us go for it a little more with some exciting, direct players on the pitch who do at least possess that upside -

McCarthy
KWP - ABK - DCC/Salisu - Perraud
JWP - Lavia - Alcaraz
Edozie - Onuachu - Sulemana

Edozie has flattered to deceive on quite a lot of occasions, so I'd completely understand any argument which suggests he's better off the bench. That position could go to about 5 different players, although I'd imagine we all know who it'll be. Unfortunately Bazunu is going to be the main culprit in our relegation, he's statistically the worst performing goalkeeper in Premier League history. McCarthy, whilst also shit, has at least had a history in keeping us in the league. Couldn't pick between DCC or Salisu, both alright players. 

Edited 27 February, 2023 by Saint Matty 76

[Alanh]

I'd go 4-3-3 as I think it would give us the right balance across the team.  The back 4 should be KWP, Perraud and the best two CBs in training - probably Salisu and ABK if everyone is fit, but with a strong argument for DCC.   A midfield three of JWP, Lavia and Alcaraz, should be dynamic and relatively solid with the capacity to attack when necessary primarily through late runs into the box.  Subs of Mo, Stu or Diallo gives options later in the game to either go more defensive or more attacking.  The front three has either Tall Paul or Che as the No9, supported either by out and out wingers such as Edozie or Sulemanna, or 'creativity' from the likes of Orsic or Aribo, or pace from Adam Armstrong or Theo.

 

[Nemi]

The big problem is that the majority of our attacking mids are incapable of passing the ball and just run into dead-ends non-stop. Armstrong and Elyounoussi probably produced the worst attacking midfielder display I've ever seen at the weekend, but this is a problem that's persisted basically ever since Tadic left. Even Sulemana I'm not convinced by - he seems to have the same problem, all pace and dribbling and no end product. I'd give him a chance for now as at least he seems to make defenders worry, but he needs to start putting some chances away too.

For all the criticism our strikers get no wonder we've had failure after failure recently, the attacking mids just get the ball and dribble it into the corner. None of them are capable of any link-up play, we've brought winger after winger / attacking mid after attack mid who just dribble and don't do anything else. The ball never gets anywhere near the strikers and when it does its a hopeful punt from defence. Their also never stood in the right-place to receive the ball - TBF Walcott is not too bad in this regard, he does get into decent positions but of course the problem is the rest of his game has gone to pot.

Finally we have a player in Lavia who can break the lines and ultimately its pointless - are their any teams in the league who have attacking mids and wingers with such little output in goals or assists? 

Hopefully Alcaraz can address this to an extent. I'd probably go 

GK

KWP - DCC - Salisu - Perraud

Lavia

JWP - Alcaraz

Sulemana (though maybe Aribo could get another chance as at least he's popped up with a couple of goals)

Onuachu - Adams

But really its still square pegs in round holes. What a mess our recruitment has been. All that money spent and all we have is a load of pace and no substance - when we've been crying out for a attacker who can play with just a touch or two.

 

Edited 27 February, 2023 by Nemi

[SNSUN]

4231

 

GK - McCarthy/Willy

RB - KWP

CB - ABK

CB - Salisu/DCC

LB - Perraud

CM - JWP

CM - Lavia

AML - Sulemana

AMC - Alcaraz

AMR - SArmstrong

Str - Onuachu/Adams.

 

Bar a few positions where you have a couple of players who are interchangeable that's what I think our strongest formation/first team could look like excluding long term injury Tino. I prefer Adams in a 2 up front so would stick with Paul really but otherwise, if we could get that team together in that shape, I think we could be talking. Baffling how many managers can't see it. They must see something in training that we don't to keep picking the likes of Lyanco, AMN, Diallo, AArmstrong (although at times has been ok), Bednarek, Moi etc.

 

 

[Fabrice29]

We've lost a stupid amount of games by 1 goal, lots 1-0 and some of those to the team 19th at the time, we've probably played various different set ups and players in each of them. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with how we're setting up, whatever formation or combination anyone comes up with will do okay one week and collapse the next, there is something fundamentally wrong with the ability and mentality in the squad however.

As a side issue to this, I genuinely believe these next few games are a chance for us to pick up points. Our squad completely melts when playing anyone who puts the onus on us to break them down but seems to relish playing against teams who are proactive. Leicester, United, Spurs will all have to be proactive against us, I've no doubt we'll play better in these games than the Brentford game especially, whether or not we pick up wins is up in the air because clearly we're playing some quality players who can take the game away at any time, but we'll definitely up our game in these games and almost certainly melt in the less challenging games.

Edited 27 February, 2023 by Fabrice29

[IFHP]

5 hours ago, ally_uk said:

Let's talk about formation and players lads how would you setup the team and why?

For me a 4-4-2 

Perraud and KWP as fullbacks 

Salisu and Kotchap 

Left wing Sulemana 

Prowse and Lavia in centre. Lavia to keep it ticking over and Prowse to push forwards 

On the right Wing Alcaraz 

Strikers Adams n Onuachu 

I know bazunu is shit but even he is better then nobody in Goal . 

[Osvaldorama]

I’d play 4-2-3-1:
Mccarthy

KWP ABK Salisu Perraud

JWP Lavia 
Sulemana Alcaraz Edozie 

Paul

Possibly DCC over Salisu but there isn’t much in it. Definitely not fucking Bednarek. 

Id be telling the wingers to get to the by-line and put it in the fucking mixer for once. And getting them to win free kicks for JWP. 

[LaptopSaint]

Why does every team I see on here have JWP Lavia & Alcaraz running the midfield, but that never happens on the actual pitch? 

Just give it a go, it's what fans want, and it can't be worse than the shite we put out against Leeds, right? 

Those three plus three from Edozie, Tall, Sully, Stuey and Che further up. Get it done. If we're going down let's go down with a bit of fight and more than 8 touches in the opposition box. 

[Chewy]

Like most of the above I think 8, maybe 9 of the team pick themselves.

We all seem to want a back 4, KWP, ABK, Salisu, Perraud. 
A midfield of JWP, Lavia, Charlie. 

And the two new boys up top.

Only areas up for debate seem to be keeper (I’d personally stick with Bazunu), centre back (I.e. whether DCC replaces one of the above) and who the third forward is (probably a wide forward in a 433).

We have S Armstrong, A Armstrong, Edozie, Orsic, Walcott, Eli, Djenepo, Aribo and even Dibling and Doyle to pick from. I’d personally start with probably Stu (or Orsic) and have Edozie on the bench but happily accept any other opinion.

Except Eli of course - he is, and always has been, terrible. He did have a good 5 minutes v Arsenal, granted. 5 mins in 4 years.

Given that we barely have one good centre forward (promising start for Paul but unproven) let alone 2, and do have 3 good midfielders I would very obviously favour 433. Sticking Charlie out wide to me seems pointless.
433 allows you to solidly sit in a midfield 5 when needed, and support the cf with any combination of the rest: 4141, 4231, 433 narrow, even a bl00dy Christmas tree. Sit the midfielders and bomb the full backs, sit the full backs and push JWP/Charlie. It’s all possible and adaptable to the opposition and match scenario.

The only drawback is failing to support Paul, but our other centre forwards are cr4p. And you can compensate by playing Sulemane as a cheating winger staying high up the pitch. 
 

That’s what I would do - main bench of DCC, Bree (or AMN), Diallo, Edozie, Orsic, Adams, Mara. Plus a keeper and AN other. Probably a youngster.

Simple 😉

Edited 28 February, 2023 by Chewy
Typo

[Gingeletiss]

4-1-2-3

[saintant]

We don't have the players who are fit enough or clever enough to play any of these modern alternative systems so I'd go for a simple 433. That way we get good numbers in midfield and have three up front. Then tell the team to come flying out the blocks in every game and get in the faces of the opponents. Show some passion and grit. Keep the passing crisp and every player should be constantly on the move making himself available. There are wide open spaces to be found on a football pitch so get players moving into them - play between the lines. Transition the ball quickly and get players up in support of the forwards. Get crosses into the box for Tall Paul and also shoot on sight. Introduce the shit-house style that every other team uses including fouls to break up opposition attacks, time wasting (if we're ahead of course), feigning injuries if we're under the cosh and getting in the ref's ear.  Get defenders marking opponents - none of this zonal crap. Give the crowd something to get behind in the home games. As for team selection I'd go with;

Baz

KWP ABK Salisu Perraud

 JWP Lavia Alcaraz

Sulemana Onuachu Adams

[Saint86]

Might be somewhat controversial but i would somewhat tweak the formation away from our standard norms.

I would go for a 4-1-2-2-1 (i.e. glorified 4-3-3).

KWP/Perraud as wing backs pushing up to support the wingers, but not necessarily tasked with overlapping and playing quite as attacking as previous - only if the opportunity arrives.

With Lavia as a proper midfield anchor man.

JWP and Alcaraz as our CMs - with licence to push up and support the attack/wingers.

Sulemana/Edozie as either wingers - tasked with running at defences, carrying the ball, and crossing to che/Pall or the CMs arriving from deep.

Che/Paul as the focal point.

                Baz

KWP ABK Salisu Perraud

              Lavia

         JWP    Alcaraz

Sulemana           Edozie

              Che

Could also play this narrower - with the wing backs overlapping and a concerted press - with lavia and the two CB's providing a central core that will be hard to play through.

In summary - try and get all our best players on the pitch and in their preferred roles...

Edited 1 March, 2023 by Saint86

[SambaMaverick]

McCarthy

KWP - ABK - Salisu - Perraud

Lavia

Edozie - JWP - Armstrong - Sulemana

Che

[Saint Garrett]

It felt like we were pretty much playing a 4-1-4-1 at the start of the season under Ralph. We certainly did at Leicester and at home vs Chelsea, as Lavia sat in front, and JWP was playing a long way up the pitch. 

-------------Baz

KWP ----ABK----Salisu---Djenepo

-------------Lavia----------------

Aribo Elyounoussi JWP AArmstrong

-------------Mara-----------------

 

We swapped Perraud in for Djenepo, Diallo in for Aribo and Adams in for Mara for Chelsea (H).

 

If we look to play a similar system to that, it probably leaves us with the following with new players accounted for:

--------------Baz

KWP ----ABK----Salisu---Perraud

-------------Lavia----------------

SArmstrong Elyounoussi JWP Sulemena

-------------Onuachu-----------------

 

Edited 1 March, 2023 by Saint Garrett

[Dusic]

Two key things if Onuachu plays:

1. He has to play with a partner or someone just off him. When people write 433 formations it looks great but we know it becomes 451 and an isolated striker. He doesnt have the pace for that.

2. We need to be better at putting crosses into the box to take advantage of Onuachu's height. Crazy to have barely put one good ball in since he joined.

[Convict Colony]

Yeah Alcaraz has to start somewhere, he has actually scored a goal from open play.

[Nordic Saint]

On 27/02/2023 at 19:10, Nemi said:

The big problem is that the majority of our attacking mids are incapable of passing the ball and just run into dead-ends non-stop. Armstrong and Elyounoussi probably produced the worst attacking midfielder display I've ever seen at the weekend, but this is a problem that's persisted basically ever since Tadic left. Even Sulemana I'm not convinced by - he seems to have the same problem, all pace and dribbling and no end product. I'd give him a chance for now as at least he seems to make defenders worry, but he needs to start putting some chances away too.

For all the criticism our strikers get no wonder we've had failure after failure recently, the attacking mids just get the ball and dribble it into the corner. None of them are capable of any link-up play, we've brought winger after winger / attacking mid after attack mid who just dribble and don't do anything else. The ball never gets anywhere near the strikers and when it does its a hopeful punt from defence. Their also never stood in the right-place to receive the ball - TBF Walcott is not too bad in this regard, he does get into decent positions but of course the problem is the rest of his game has gone to pot.

Finally we have a player in Lavia who can break the lines and ultimately its pointless - are their any teams in the league who have attacking mids and wingers with such little output in goals or assists? 

Hopefully Alcaraz can address this to an extent. I'd probably go 

GK

KWP - DCC - Salisu - Perraud

Lavia

JWP - Alcaraz

Sulemana (though maybe Aribo could get another chance as at least he's popped up with a couple of goals)

Onuachu - Adams

But really its still square pegs in round holes. What a mess our recruitment has been. All that money spent and all we have is a load of pace and no substance - when we've been crying out for a attacker who can play with just a touch or two.

 

GK? We haven't really got anyone you'd trust in that position, have we? I guess Caballero appears to be the least inept of the three but maybe that's just because we haven't seen much of him.

[Bob76]

2 hours ago, Dusic said:

Two key things if Onuachu plays:

1. He has to play with a partner or someone just off him. When people write 433 formations it looks great but we know it becomes 451 and an isolated striker. He doesnt have the pace for that.

2. We need to be better at putting crosses into the box to take advantage of Onuachu's height. Crazy to have barely put one good ball in since he joined.

I remember playing 4:3:3 with koeman and the striker was never isolated.

 

Edited 1 March, 2023 by Bob76

[Chez]

What a good original question. It's bloody difficult. I want to say 4-3-3, so we can try and get the best out of Sulemana, and that's my line up, but perhaps the 4-4-2 (aka 4-2-2-2) is the formation some of the players actually know how to play. When is comes to the players, I honestly don't know who is the best choice in many positions - and I watch every bloody game.  

McCarthy, but he's injured, so probably has to be Bazunu, as Cabellero is possibly too slow. I don't know, as not seen him play for yonks.  

KWP - I am not sure whether to play him at LB and bring Lyanco in at right back, as we had a modicum of success with it, but picking Lyanco ahead of Bree feels wrong. I'll have to stick with KWP at right back, I think.

ABK is a no brainer, then after that, probably Salisu, then DCC, then Bednarek, but I'm not convinced Salisu and DCC are that much better than Bednarek. Salisu has had some poor games and DCC has been OK, but lacks pace.

I'm tempted to pick Larios ahead of Perraud. He looks a better technically, but although Larios is busy (much like Perraud), he looks too slow to me to play fullback (much like Perraud). Maybe Djenepo gets another go there? No, that's not going to work. Shit. 

Lavia, JWP. Not really a decision to make here as there is fuck all competition. 

Alcaraz. Again, seems like the only option to me as Diallo gives the ball away too much. But Alcaraz has a lot to learn, not least where to be defensively. Picking him is easy, but as we saw against Wolves, it doesn't mean our midfield is suddenly great.  

Salemana on the left wing. He's been unimpressive, but everyone else has had a shed load of chances, so he has to be given a few more. Djenepo after him.

On the right wing, I think I'd go AArmstrong, then SArmstrong. But not totally convinced by my own choice. I think we have looked most threatening when AArmstrong was running at Newcastle in the first leg, but I am willing to concede the end product has been missing, so why go back to him again? I guess I thought he might have turned a corner in that game - maybe not in terms of goals, but confidence wise, he seemed to go for it and caused Newcastle genuine problems.     

Mara gets the nod for me. I think he is the most talented of the three and his performance against Newcastle made me think he could lead the line on his own. Che has had his chances and Onuachu aint my cup of tea. Not much separates them though, so wouldn't criticise anyone's alternative choice.

If we go 4-4-2 I'd need a rethink.

[tdmickey3]

To win

[Saint Fan CaM]

4-1-2-3 would suit the players available to us I think.

Think Bazunu needs a break, but they're too scared to do this - might impact the investment for a sale.  I'd have Caballero despite his age.

The fullbacks should be KWP and Perraud - good players in their proper positions.

CB's ideally should be DCC and either ABK or Salisu.  The latter two don't hold enough experience together.

Then Lavia in the CDM role, but important that he doesn't sit too deep when we're in possession.  Ahead of him is JWP and Alcarez with the licence to push forward as required.

Top three for me would be Sully, Tall Paul or Che, Edozie or Adam Armstrong.  Mara and Orsic on the bench - not ready for a start yet.

The key to any of this working is how the team moves as a unit in terms of pressing or attacking - must be as one.  And when we're in possession, make as many one touch quick passes as possible by ensuring there are always at least two other players within 10 yards open to a pass.  Oh yeah and don't dally with the ball and certainly don't attempt kamikaze passes across the backline or via the GK!