- Jul 10, 2003
- 25,809
After watching a few games since we made the change from 4-4-1-1 to 4-3-3 a few observations.
Barring yesterday and the Stephens Injury, I think it's more suited to Proppers game as it seems to give his attacking prowess more opportunity, but equally Gross doesn't seem as effective as when he is in behind the striker. Gross is still the best dead ball player, way ahead of Solly and Knocky. I also think Propper in the DM role yesterday is far more positive than Stephens, but not convinced he's as good at breaking up play.
We now seem to have a group of wingers (Solly, Knocky and Izquierdo) and a group of wide strikers (Jurgen, Ali and Gyokeres). At the moment (and possibly into the future) CH seems to like to play one traditional winger and one wide striker. This gives Murray or Andone more support going forward from the wide striker, but does tend to mean the fullback on that side is exposed more (and gets more stick from NSC!).
I worry a little for Knocky. Watching Lingard lately (who I really didn't appreciate when he was here) he looks the epitome of a modern attacking player. He very rarely plays more than two touches and consequently quickens all attacking play that goes through him. I'm afraid that Knocky's first thought is always to beat the player and, although exciting for the crowd, tends to slow play. Not comparing them, but I always felt Lua-Lua suffered from the same problem.
I reckon overall, the change in formation is positive and believe we will pick up the points needed over the next few weeks after a reasonable display yesterday
Barring yesterday and the Stephens Injury, I think it's more suited to Proppers game as it seems to give his attacking prowess more opportunity, but equally Gross doesn't seem as effective as when he is in behind the striker. Gross is still the best dead ball player, way ahead of Solly and Knocky. I also think Propper in the DM role yesterday is far more positive than Stephens, but not convinced he's as good at breaking up play.
We now seem to have a group of wingers (Solly, Knocky and Izquierdo) and a group of wide strikers (Jurgen, Ali and Gyokeres). At the moment (and possibly into the future) CH seems to like to play one traditional winger and one wide striker. This gives Murray or Andone more support going forward from the wide striker, but does tend to mean the fullback on that side is exposed more (and gets more stick from NSC!).
I worry a little for Knocky. Watching Lingard lately (who I really didn't appreciate when he was here) he looks the epitome of a modern attacking player. He very rarely plays more than two touches and consequently quickens all attacking play that goes through him. I'm afraid that Knocky's first thought is always to beat the player and, although exciting for the crowd, tends to slow play. Not comparing them, but I always felt Lua-Lua suffered from the same problem.
I reckon overall, the change in formation is positive and believe we will pick up the points needed over the next few weeks after a reasonable display yesterday
