No point looking in the past. LJ made a mistake and rectified it, let's just enjoy the brilliant goal scoring form he's in at the moment. If we had played 4-4-2 all season he might have been struck by a season ending injury, it's impossible to generalise like that.
Who would we have played on the wings and alongside him up front had we done that? I think almost everyone, including the board at the club, is now of the opinion that there was a problem with our recruitment in the summer. That doesn't just apply to the quality of player we brought in, but also to the options the manager had for the formation we play. Playing 4-4-2 when you've got the quality of Hammill, Isgrove, Winnall, Watkins, Fletcher and Williams to fill the two wide positions and the two up front seems like the obvious choice. For the first few months of the season we didn't have Hammill, Isgrove and Fletcher at all, Williams was injured and, arguably, our best three players were Scowen, Pearson and Hourihane, none of the three being suited to play out wide. At the moment 4-4-2 looks great, but I'm not sure it would have done with Watkins on one wing, Crowley on the other and Winnall partnering Wilkinson up front. That attacking quartet doesn't get close to what we can put out now and I don't believe we would have been presenting Winnall with the same kind of opportunities in front of goal that he's now getting. That's not to say what Johnson tried worked very well, but I'm not sure 4-4-2 would have faired any better. We just didn't have the quality we've now got.
One fella who knows a bit about football said to me that it doesn't matter how good a manager you are, if you're players are **** then your team will be ****. Before Hammill/White & Long came in, our players were ****. Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
