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5-2-3

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robinhood

robinhood

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So, do you think we'll stick with it?

It sort of makes sense with some of the personnel we have, but I'd rather we played an extra central midfielder (ie play Gerrard there) and obviously stick Suarez in the forward line.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'm just not sure about not playing 4 at the back.

The most interesting thing to note is that Gerrard and Meireles rampaged from ostensibly wide attacking mid positions. And whilst we all wondered what was going on when we saw the team selection, I don't think after watching the way we played at times last night that anyone could say it won't work.

It's clear that if you're playing pass and run and you have decent players in advanced positions it doesn't really matter what their "natural" positions are; they can make it work. The passing game is back!

Could we turn it into a 4-2-4:


--------Kuyt Suarez
---Gerrard------Meireles

--------Lucas Aurelio

Johnson Agger Skrtel Kelly

-----------Reina


?
 
whatever it was, I don't think we will see it oft repeated, as kenny said something to the effect of "we did what we could with what we have" in his post match interview, so once Carra and Carroll get healthy we may see something more similar to the 4-2-3-1 or something new entirely. Just a guess
 
Fair enough.

But what do you think of Gerrard and Meireles playing as roaming attacking mids, as an alternative to actual wide players.

I was pretty impressed with it.
 
[quote author=robinhood link=topic=44018.msg1277102#msg1277102 date=1296727124]
Fair enough.

But what do you think of Gerrard and Meireles playing as roaming attacking mids, as an alternative to actual wide players.

I was pretty impressed with it.
[/quote]

It looked great at times. Kuyt did look a bit isolated. I think we can get better.
Having Carroll back together with Suarez and Kuyt behind him, will definitely help.
 
[quote author=robinhood link=topic=44018.msg1277102#msg1277102 date=1296727124]
Fair enough.

But what do you think of Gerrard and Meireles playing as roaming attacking mids, as an alternative to actual wide players.

I was pretty impressed with it.
[/quote]

I was very impressed it with tonight and we seemed to work quite well without any traditional wide players. I think we need to give it some more time and evaluate its use against quality opposition before we use it long term. It is a great stop gap for us at the moment though, having no wide players and not being able to purchase any (FOR THE FOURTH STRAIGHT YEAR!) until summer.

Long term though? Let's wait and see, maybe we can march out in that formation against Chelsea. If it turns out that we are excellent in this formation for the next 4 months, maybe we can stay wingless for yet under summer and save 30m+ pounds. I can certainly see it getting the best out of Gerrard, he seemed to thrive in it.
 
i got the impression it was very much a "horses for courses" type formation i.e. employed primarily to negate the arial threat and "park the bus" mindset of stoke- by swamping the midfield... I would be very surprised if we see it repeated against the chavs!
 
Didn't we play something similar under Rafa a few times at home? I think it can be successful at home against teams who park the bus and don't have any real quality or pace on the wings which cold damage us on the counter attack.
 
I thought that Kenny's formation got the best out of the players last night. Kuyt looked a different player playing up top.
 
[quote author=VeggardSub link=topic=44018.msg1277111#msg1277111 date=1296728550]
i got the impression it was very much a "horses for courses" type formation i.e. employed primarily to negate the arial threat and "park the bus" mindset of stoke- by swamping the midfield... I would be very surprised if we see it repeated against the chavs!
[/quote]

yup i agree with this.

i doubt if we'll be using this formation all the time.
 
[quote author=Modo link=topic=44018.msg1277084#msg1277084 date=1296725486]
I'm pretty sure we were playing more of 3-5-1-1 system or a 5-4-1.
[/quote]

Whetever it was, there was a whole lot of movement going on and players covering other players which is good to see! Its about time the they started playing for each other!
 
I don't know what to make of it.

We played well though, or Stoke seemed to make it very easy for us.
 
[quote author=Cerberus link=topic=44018.msg1277120#msg1277120 date=1296729420]
Didn't we play something similar under Rafa a few times at home? I think it can be successful at home against teams who park the bus and don't have any real quality or pace on the wings which cold damage us on the counter attack.
[/quote]

The last time I remember us playing this formation regularly was during the Evans era.

James

Wright Ruddock Babb

McAteer Jones

McManaman Thomas Barnes

Fowler Rush

Or something like that.
 
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