You must be joking Jimmy!

[knocker]

I think part of the problem with the championship is playing two games a week. Perhaps my memory is failing me, but was it always like this? We are about a month into the season and have played six games (plus two games in the league cup) with a week off for internationals. I can't see the advantage of this. Too many games, risk of injuries, and bad for attendance.

biggest threat to attendances is our dross football. Lucky we are not playing Rotherham Tuesday or I think we would struggle to get 10,000

[QPR Rickson]

Correct me if I'm wrong stato but didn't Leicester win the prem with 2 up front? And there's not a person on this planet who could argue that they weren't a damn sight more entertaining than the dross we've are served up.

Yep. Won the title playing 2 up top. But not good anough for us though.

[nasser95]

Yep. Won the title playing 2 up top. But not good anough for us though.

Again, you totally ignore the point I made which explains why they can afford to do that.

[Bill]

Are you Jimmy in disguise

[knocker]

Again, you totally ignore the point I made which explains why they can afford to do that.

and you're always right!!!

[nasser95]

and you're always right!!!

So you don't think having Kante makes a difference to playing 442? Why have very few other teams had as much success playing 442? Why do City, Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, etc all play 1 up top? The very best of the best went with this formation and built around that style for years and have earned success for years doing it. But one team having one incredible season playing 442 thanks to the hardest working midfielder the prem has seen in years means that it's the formation to go with?

[knocker]

So you don't think having Kante makes a difference to playing 442? Why have very few other teams had as much success playing 442? Why do City, Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, etc all play 1 up top? The very best of the best went with this formation and built around that style for years and have earned success for years doing it. But one team having one incredible season playing 442 thanks to the hardest working midfielder the prem has seen in years means that it's the formation to go with?

We are in the championship! Our players are obviously not good enough to play 1 up top. Let's try something different.

[nasser95]

We are in the championship! Our players are obviously not good enough to play 1 up top. Let's try something different.

But you realise that we have to be even better to play 2 up top... We have to have one midfielder who literally does everything. Passing, tackling, heading, intercepting, the whole shabam, all while covering the ground of 2 players. The closest we have is Luongo (I would say cousins but his passing isn't that great) and Luongo doesn't do the running of two players. You also need at least one hypertalented player who will create everything for you offensively and we don't have that. The issue with a 442 is creativity, you have only one source for it ultimately when you play that formation. With a 4231, you have at least 2, if not more.

[QPR Rickson]

Again, you totally ignore the point I made which explains why they can afford to do that.

I don't read your nonsense that's why.

[nasser95]

I don't read your nonsense that's why.

Fair enough, you do you.

[Bill]

But we dont even try against the lesser teams at home to play this way

[lymehoop]

But you realise that we have to be even better to play 2 up top... We have to have one midfielder who literally does everything. Passing, tackling, heading, intercepting, the whole shabam, all while covering the ground of 2 players. The closest we have is Luongo (I would say cousins but his passing isn't that great) and Luongo doesn't do the running of two players. You also need at least one hypertalented player who will create everything for you offensively and we don't have that. The issue with a 442 is creativity, you have only one source for it ultimately when you play that formation. With a 4231, you have at least 2, if not more.

disagree with you there Nas. 1 up front is a new concept, used by Liverpool in Europe in the 70's. Their belief was to go away and defend, knowing they could overcome a deficit at fortress Anfield. I agree with Bill. We are so predictable, the opposition are laughing their socks off with our toothless attack. But more importantly, it's f***ing boring

[knocker]

But you realise that we have to be even better to play 2 up top... We have to have one midfielder who literally does everything. Passing, tackling, heading, intercepting, the whole shabam, all while covering the ground of 2 players. The closest we have is Luongo (I would say cousins but his passing isn't that great) and Luongo doesn't do the running of two players. You also need at least one hypertalented player who will create everything for you offensively and we don't have that. The issue with a 442 is creativity, you have only one source for it ultimately when you play that formation. With a 4231, you have at least 2, if not more.

Surely yesterday was a perfect chance to try it. With polter going off, shouldhave brought on sylla and Washington and took off the useless Moroccan. What does he do? Sticks Washington up top on his own and then pump balls to him against two 6 foot centre backs.

[nasser95]

disagree with you there Nas. 1 up front is a new concept, used by Liverpool in Europe in the 70's. Their belief was to go away and defend, knowing they could overcome a deficit at fortress Anfield. I agree with Bill. We are so predictable, the opposition are laughing their socks off with our toothless attack. But more importantly, it's f***ing boring

But that's the direction football has gone in. Back in the day, the quality of defending was so different that 442 actually had a chance of working on a regular basis. Now, having the ability to change between 4231 and 442 is useful for sure, but there are very few teams who actually regularly change formation over the course of a season. Recently, the ones I can think of are West Ham, Liverpool, Man Utd last season. But other than that, most teams maintain a tactical style that they use for around 90 percent of the league season.
As for whether we have a toothless attack, we actually did create plenty yesterday, especially in the second half. The issue is that we had to take off the striker who could actually score those chances. Those chances ended up falling to Nasser who lacks end product and CW who lacks composure and confidence. Even the big man himself Polter should have scored a tap in when the ball was played to him on the floor across the face of goal, only for him to get ahead of the ball. We're creating, we're not finishing. It's not a toothless attack, to continue the theme there, it's an attack with all the teeth in the right place, but the wisdom teeth have just been taken out and we can't bite. When we get that bite back, and start taking those chances, we'll dominate again with this formation.

[nasser95]

Surely yesterday was a perfect chance to try it. With polter going off, shouldhave brought on sylla and Washington and took off the useless Moroccan. What does he do? Sticks Washington up top on his own and then pump balls to him against two 6 foot centre backs.

Had we not scored when we did, we would have seen a 2 up front, but saying that we pumped balls up to CW isn't actually that true, we played 52 ground passes into the final third in that second half, We only played 23 in the air. And watching the match, there were enough opportunities for CW to score that he didn't take, same goes for Nasser. We just need to be clinical, we've got the creativity starting to flow.