Player Selection & Formation

[stirred]

Been a lot of talk recently about player selection and which formation would best
Suit our squad etc so I thought that debate deserved it's own thread. So who should start the next game, Ribeiro or Bong? Figs or Soh? Colback or Sow? Lolley or Freeman? Plus which formation would you like to see the manager go with?

I was one of many who wanted Knockaert and Freeman to start together. Well they did start together at Boro and they were very poor. I really don't know why we are not firing at the moment.

Me too, but it's not sufficient. In Colback & Yates we don't have a midfield to integrate the play with them. And as Alf said here the other day, the full backs are worse than last season. The onus for attacking is on 4 players without sufficient support from the rest of the side. And the deeper Freeman and the wide players play to be closer to their support, the more isolated the striker is.

I recall Real Madrid several years ago have a team with a relatively separated attacking 4 players succeed, with from memory Ronaldo, Ozil, Di Maria & Benzema in their prime. They were talented relative to their opponents, but also had pace, and the likes of Alonso to feed them. Leicester played a 'low block' and counter-attacked to win the title, but they had pace, they had Vardy & Mahrez.

Our attacking 4 are good, but not outstanding relative to our peers, and don't have those attributes. We don't have pace - and have chosen not to use Mighten at all so it appears that is not the plan - and we don't have an Alonso. So the alternative is to play better as a team.

So then we need to fundamentally adopt a more adventurous approach, of committing more men forwards to support the designated attacking players. But we seem to have a safety first manager, so unless Arter can return and provide that link, and the fullbacks wake up, Freeman is going to go the way of Carvalho, and the performances and results will continue to disappoint.