Southend Away

Not many play 1 up top.

 

Even when we played 442 under McCall and parky, we didn't have 2 strikers playing side by side (except Hanson and wells). One of them always dropped off behind the other so effectively played 4411

 

I'll be there @Botswana Bantam .

My first one of the season and like you, not relishing this one at all based on recent performances. Feels more like a duty to attend as it's relatively local

 

Good stuff. Not sure if I'll be alone or with the little one. I'll pop you a message closer to the time.

 

Ok mate, see you there. I'll be with my 6ft, 17 year old "little one"!

 

A point would be a good result here. I think most people would have taken 4 points from our opening 3 league games considering how tough the 3 games are. The cup exit is disappointing but the league is where our season will be defined so got to move on from last night and refocus on Saturday.

4 points on the board after Saturday would set up nicely for the next couple of “easier” fixtures that we should be winning.

 

Posted similar @alex after last nights game a point at Southend would be very welcome then two home games against Burton and Wycombe Wanderers to steady the ship.

 

Yes the league is where our season may be defined - but we have been informed and MC admitted cup runs help the business side- this in turn determines either we can strengthen by adding better calibre players to the squad.

 

Don't confuse @Fordy117 with facts.

 

Every top side in England plays it?

 

No they don't. 4-3-3 maybe

 

Interesting game for Wright and for Payne - both ex Southend players ............. and Timothy Dieng will most likely be lining up in the midfield for Southend - I know I would rather have Dieng than Wright ................... but then I am a Southend fan! As we all know Wright fell out "big time" with Southend United when his contract was not "automatically" triggered so that should give him a little "fire in his belly".

Payne should get a good reception from most thinking fans - he left us to go to Huddersfield in the division above but there were some fans that thought that Payne jumped ship to early given that he came through the ranks at Southend.

 

Absolutely agree. As I said, going out of the cup is not a good thing, both financially and also for general moral. However, if we go on to finish top 6 in the league nobody will care. However, if we had a good cup run and came 20th people would be very unhappy. That was my point.

 

4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 are practically the same. There is one out and out striker, 2 wide men and 3 CMs.

 

What's your first impressions of Dieng?. He did ok here, but never quite good enough for a team with promotion aspiration, in my opinion. We needed better, but debatable whether we have recruited better. Jury still out on Akpan and Wright up here with most

 

They're not wide men. This is where people with a lack of footballing know how get confused.

Let's take Liverpool and City for example.

Mane Firmino Salah
Sterling Aguero Sane

Mane, Salah, Sterling, Sane don't play out wide. All four of them play inside and are close to Firmino and Aguero. All of them could play as number 9's all have movement.

Weekend goals:
Liverpool's goal for Salah - central
Mane's goal's for Liverpool - central
Sterling's goal for City - central.

Bradford City are playing 1 sole player up top. Not many do that.

Bradford City at this minute look scared, out of attacking ideas and clueless.

 

Sorry but that just isn’t true. I will agree that Liverpool buck the trend with regards to the front 3 who do typically play centrally but the other teams are wide men.

Sterling and Sane play out wide, they cut inside and come centrally but their starting position is out wide. Same goes for Man Utd with Sanchez, Rashford etc, they start in wide positions and come inside. This is the same with most teams. These wide players come inside and typically get goals from inside the box but their starting position is out wide (Liverpool being the exception).

 

The difference is, even with those players starting out wide, they aren't natural wingers.

They're forwards.

Unlike ours.

It's like someone at Bradford City looked at the formations of successful sides and tried to transplant into League One without the right players or understanding.

We do not play 4 3 3.

It hasn't looked like a 4 3 3.

Its a 4 5 1 that doesn't morph or switch like top clubs' formations simply because playing that style requires extremely fast, extremely skillful athletes.

With Payne in the middle, we are closer to a 4 4 2 than a 4 3 3. The wingers are midfielders, not forwards.

 

Not true. So you're now saying Sanchez and Rashford are wide men? When Sanchez plays central for Arsenal and Rashford played all his youth career as a central forward.

You also saying Sterling and Sane play out wide?

City's game is mainly based around their full backs bombing forward. How can they do that with wide players.

Think you need to study the game more closely.

As for Bradford City at this minute we are negative and clueless- go study that also. Must teams don't play 1 up top at all. Collins doesn't know what he's doing but hey.

 

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