No Width, No Pace, No Idea

I was replying to the original poster who said this squad would finish 12th before we'd kicked a ball. He was talking about our squad on paper, so I replied with my views of our squad on paper

 

Fair enough. You’re both wrong then

That said, the fact Bowyer was putting square pegs in round holes on the opening day of the season suggests the squad is far from ready, and not just on paper

 

Do you think Shay would be useful out on the wing?

 

There was no ‘problem’ when Parkie got us to the LC final and promotion, plus season on season improvement, using that system.
There was no problem when McCall got us to a PO Final using that system.

I personally prefer 4-4-2 with 2 out and out wingers. We can stretch teams and if both are really good players, they find it harder to double-up or treble defend players.

But saying teams will easily find us out playing other systems is wrong

 

Definitely not. He is a second striker or a no10. He isn’t good enough to play up top and certainly not the player to stick on the wing. May as well play Gibson there as McCartan.

If we are to play him, it has to be in the role that Doyle was asked to do on Saturday.

 

Very few teams play two out & out wingers these days. It's a high risk strategy defensively. Scannell on the right plus an overlapping left back ought to do the job.
If Scannell gets double marked that should create space and opportunities down the middle, providing we have sufficient creativity there. The problem last season was that once teams nullified Payne we had no option to go wide and no other creativity.

 

442 usually means more direct football which in this league is no bad thing. But the football purists amongst us might not think so

 

The Wigan game showed us you can play good football and 442.

 

But 442 doesn't necessarily mean two out & out wingers. Parky played 442 with one winger and a wide midfielder tucking in on other side. SM did likewise with Law tucking in opposite Marshall. We could do likewise with Wood or Gibson on the opposite side from Scannell or Ismail.

 

If played right theres nothing wrong with direct football, especially when you have the pace of Vaughan and the hold up play of Donaldson. Where it does become a waste is like on Saturday when pumping aimless balls downfield toward a defensive set 10 men. Bowyer does have options, albeit limited, but he cannot play all three strikers together, it does not work. McCartan is an option but we do need to bring more in with Bowyer handicapped somewhat with the inneffective Patrick, the unavaible Robinson and the permanently injured Reeves. Two of them would more than likely feature if available, the other picking up a long term wage on the back of yet another Rahic *@?$ up.

 

Pretty much the same
Getting that midfield sorted will be the crux.

Nothing stood out quality wise.
Just hope into the Autumn we don't start with loss of confidence, as its a tough old league.

When we last got promoted we just finished 7th, with a squad superior to our current one.
This division is just as strong as back then

 

That's because we had the personnel to back up those systems. Currently I believe we don't - hence me saying we need a few more bodies in. Sign a decent ball winning midfielder, and that player can take control of the ball and quickly provide scannell on the break. Sign a decent left winger and that player can become an outlet if Scannell or midfield are getting marked out of the game.

LC final and promotion squad, and McCall's PO Final squad were all grafting players, with competition for places spurring everyone on, topped off with skillful players. I don't see this squad being far off, if we get a few more in and they all start to gel. We won't go up with a bench like we had on Saturday.

 

The player I most want to see more from is Palmer one game I know but he is our play maker for the season and he did nothing to affect the game in a positive way it also looks like most of our free kicks and corners are coming from him and they were poor. I am sure he will improve if he doesn’t we will struggle

 

I have to say, the obsession with 4 4 2 is a bit tired.

If you could make the argument that we've signed a set of players who suit that formation and only that formation, like under Parky, fine.

But I really don't see that at all.

 

Whatever system you call it we need width we were far to easy to defend against on Saturday and you can bet your life we will face the same again particularly at home we have to stretch and get behind and get them on the back foot. Don’t think we would have scored if we had played all night and yet we have strikers with a good reputation

 

I'm no fan of 442 and I think it's dying a death a bit to be honest but if you look at our squad, I don't see a better formation to suit the players which we have.

 

Palmer did what he was asked of him in that game because we don’t have any one else who can sit in front of the back 4. He was asked to collect from centre halves and keeper and keep things ticking over, he’s never going to be sliding Vaughan through on goal when he’s playing in front of our centre halves. We need Anthony grant or someone nasty in there to allow palmar to play higher up

 

No you don't need width, it's just that our fanbase is accustomed to seeing it.

That's all.

Old habits die hard.

 

With one winger who happens to be pretty slow, I would have to disagree that our squad suits a 4 4 2.

 

No way can you say scannell is slow.