Is that a wind up? Hope so I don't moan very often and I think hecky has done a great job and for the record I have not ever been on crynes back unlike some on here every time we sell a player!! I was shocked we went one up top against wednesday as they needed the win and again shocked we did same v a poor Cardiff side. Easy to say we have no options but 1 up top shouldn't be one as armstrong bradshaw and watkins can't play the lone striker role effectively. Just my opinion.
Most Premier League teams play with 1 up top. Many top Championship teams play with 1 up top. You do not necessarily have to have a big guy when you play I up top. It can produce goals and teams do win leagues with 1 up top. One up top is not the problem. For example, the 4-3-3 formation that we used last night is supposed to work like this. The lone striker is supposed to act as a pivot, to link play together. Of our 3 in midfield, James was supposed to be guarding the back door, but the other two (Scowen and Mowatt) were suppose to link up with Bradshaw, giving us a theoretical strike force of 3 when we have the ball and 3 in mid-field when we don't. Many other teams do it and it can work very well. The reason it is not working for us is partly that the players do not trust the system and have not played the system enough to truly understand it, and partly that the players just are not good enough. For me, James is by far our best mid-field player, but the system leaves him paroling the area in front of the back four. Do not get me wrong, he is very good at it, but being our best mid-field player, he should be directing the patterns of play further forward and not breaking up play as a 5th defender. Once again we have a problem. There is no obvious candidate to replace James in that deep role, so if he really wants to play that system, Hecky's hands are tied. The other obvious problem is that Mowatt just is not playing well, even in this system, the system he was brought to the club to play. If one of the chief support players is not playing well, then the system fails. It might also be worth stating the role of the wide men. In Minority Report, I criticised the system because of the distance between the wide players and the striker. In my opinion, too great a distance for there to be any link between them. However, in the modern game, full backs have a tendency to tuck in, so that the gap outside of the two centre backs is narrowed. Leaving the wide players high up the field ensures the full backs stay wide, thereby restoring the gap. This is the gap that is meant to be exploited by our two midfield players who are furthest forward. Clearly, the success of the system rests not with the lone striker, but with the two supporting mid-field players. Once again, I repeat that a new system requires a lot of adaptation, and clearly the players have a long way to go in this respect. It also relies upon the quality of the 3 midfield players, and for me, that is a bigger problem. Of all the systems I have seen, especially this season in the Championship, I would not personally chose this one, but Hecky has enough credit for me to be prepared to stick with him in the hope he gets it right.
