Team vs Bristol

10 minutes more than anyone else recently though. I'm not saying he has to start but can see why people are suggesting it.

 

I suppose it all depends how they’re asked to play. Both have the requisite ability to operate as marauding midfielders but we haven’t seen it often enough nor have we seen the sort of expressive football that creates chances, hence the clamour for Mallan and Moncur, on occasion.

 

And that’s because???
We now have Moore and McBurnie - and with these two in the middle playing off each other - and with proper wingers pinging those crosses in - then we are going to get goals.
We wouldn’t have scored against Millwall from last Saturday until a week next Sunday with the formation Morais has introduced.

 

The majority of goals from open play have come from strikers getting on the end of balls from wide positions, in behind the opponents defence, Bradshaw with the most. So for me that is where we need to focus our attacking play. I think having Moore on the bench gives us the plan B if it's not working. Our last decent performance was against Wednesday at home. Yes they were poor, but our attacking pay down the wings looked promising, coupled with the high press from our wingers, and the overlapping runs from the full backs, particularly Yiadom who has a knack of running into space behind the defence, as does Isgrove.

 

Davies
Jackson Mills Lindsay Pinnock
Yiadom Pearson Knasmuellner Hammill
McBurnie Moore

Rationale:-
1) Pulis-tastic back four;
2) Maximum threat from set pieces with five centre halfs, Kieffer and McBurnie, which has got to be our best chance of scoring;
3) Any combo of Gardner, Williams, Moncur, Potts and Mallan in centre mid is proven sh!te and I really have had enough of most of them;
4) Yiadom and Hammill are our two most experienced wingers and have been more productive through their careers in that position than anyone else we've got;
5) I'm getting beyond caring and having a giraffe is the only way forward

 

Who is going to play in the centre of midfield - that has been and continues to be the real issue

 

Davies

Yiadom Jackson Lindsay Fryers

Isgrove Gardner Potts Hammill

McBurnie Moore

Have to try something new and that team for me will keep us up!

 

We looked far more threatening with McCarthy and Hammill up to October

 

Davies

McCarthy Jackson Lindsay Yiadom

Hammill Gardner Williams Isgrove

Moore McBurnie

I know the limitations of playing Williams and Gardner together in central midfield, but with two wingers on the field and two up front, I don't believe any other midfielder we have offers us enough protection.

I don't like playing our best players out of position, but imho Cavare, Fryers and Pinillos have such huge flaws that I wouldn't play any of them unless I absolutely had to. McCarthy on the other hand, while having some poor games, has also had some very good ones, which means Yiadom to left back. He's our best right back, but he's our best left back too.

Don't mind on which wing Hammill and Isgrove play, but we now have two forwards who are both very good in the air, so we've got to exploit that by playing our two best wingers and two full backs with the energy to constantly make overlapping runs.

Swap Pinnock and Mills for Jackson and Lindsay or any pair from the four. I think they're all decent without being spectacular and I'm not sure it makes much difference which of the two we play. It might be worth playing Mills and making him captain to take advantage of all that experience and help instil a bit of confidence in the younger players.

I don't think the above is a particularly great team, but imho it's the best we've got and if they were fired up they'd have enough to beat some teams with little or nothing to play for.

In reality I don't expect to see McCarthy or Hammill to feature in the squad, I think we'll continue with 4-1-2-3, the entire squad look a long way short of motivated and I think we'll struggle. But we may struggle with the above team too, or any selection/formation. Recruitment hasn't been good and an inferior squad to the majority of the opposition invariably leads to seasons like this one. To cap it all, we now appear to have a manager who is extracting the worst from them.

 

Nice one Jayose, I like this.

 

Pretty much my side other than I picked Cavare over McCarthy, edges it on ability for me, though questions on his temperament and possibly defensive awareness.

With you on everything else though.

Sadly I doubt the team will be anywhere near this.

 

Unfortunately I can`t see such a change of philosophy from our manager - so no Izzy and no Adam I`m afraid.

 

I've come to the conclusion that that the best way of starting team selection would be to be getting the players together drawing the metaphorical line in the sand and asking them which ones have the balls for the job and actually care!

 

Davies
Cavare Pinnock Lindsay Yiadom
Williams Gardner
Thiam Potts Hammill
McBurnie

Subs:
- Townsend
- Isgrove
- Knasmullner
- Moncur
- McCarthy
- Jackson
- Hedges