Team

[farfouille]

Who will play the advanced MF role, Sidwell or Kara?

Looking at the semicolons in the line up, it's some kind of strange 4-1-4-1 which means:

                 Stekelenburg;
     Riether, Hughes, Senderos, Riise;
                      Parker;
Dejagah, Karagounis, Sidwell, Kacaniklic;
                     Berbatov

I'm amazed by the fact that Kasami is benched though...

Those semicolons are mine - I assumed it would be a 4141/433 blend, so don't look into those too much!

Oops, yes, the semicolons in Twitter are like this:

Whites Team to face Aston Villa: Stekelenburg; Riether, Hughes, Senderos, Riise; Parker, Karagounis, Sidwell; Dejagah, Kačaniklić; Berbatov.

So it's:

           Stekelenburg;
Riether, Hughes, Senderos, Riise;
    Parker, Karagounis, Sidwell;
Dejagah,                      Kačaniklić;
                Berbatov

I guess it's 4-2-3-1 with Kara behind Berba... So strange.

[grandad]

My main worry is the lack of pace in central defence. If the Villa forwards run at them with their pace we will get battered. Our defensive MF will have to protect H & S

[Tempest]

so many comments about strange line up. its different but what else would we expect? Surely we need to do something different to get out of this slump?

Rene has done his bit by shaking things up. Down to the players now.  COYW! 049:gif

[St Eve]

Kasami must not be 100 per cent

[Barrie]

Hmm, I wonder too where the support for Berbatov is going to come from.  Only three attackingly-minded players in the team.  Obviously means that we are going to keep in tight, which against Villa's counter-attacking style is probably sensible.

[Fulham_Surrey]

why play riise and not zverotic.  riise is horrible. weimann or gabby or tonev will have a field day.

[PokerMatt]

My main worry is the lack of pace in central defence. If the Villa forwards run at them with their pace we will get battered. Our defensive MF will have to protect H & S

I suspect this is why we have presumably a flat midfield three and three attackers. A bit more protection for the defence - leaves a lot up to the wingers, though. It's a sensible lineup but we can't concede early.

[ffc73]

  Sidwell for Kasami?

No Boateng (surely better defensive mid-field than Sidwell) or Tarabat on bench either.

Strange.  If we win.  A masterstroke.  If not.  What's Rene doing?

Master stroke it is then.

Now can I have gravy with my large slice of humble pie?

[Count Berbatov]

This was a clear 4-1-4-1
Both Kara and Sidwell more advanced than Parker, who sat in front of the back four
Wingers on each side who pull back and run the wings.
This is your formation. It's easy to transform in 4-5-1 when defending. Keeps a high line.
Love it. Rene is a genius

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[farfouille]

This was a clear 4-1-4-1
Both Kara and Sidwell more advanced than Parker, who sat in front of the back four
Wingers on each side who pull back and run the wings.
This is your formation. It's easy to transform in 4-5-1 when defending. Keeps a high line.
Love it. Rene is a genius

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

I would say it's rather 4-3-3 with 2 attacking full backs, 2 defensive CMs and 1 attacking CM:



By the way, Arsenal are playing with the exact same formation right now.

I agree though, Rene is a genius.

[EJL]

Spot on, Rene.

[fulham traveller]

just goes to show what we know about football, no one would of picked that team and we won with ease

[callumc513]

It's easy to say with hindsight, but that is really the kind of team we should be putting out regularly, perhaps with Ruíz as an impact sub. Allows us to really play to Berba's strengths.

[farfouille]

just goes to show what we know about football, no one would of picked that team and we won with ease

True, everyone would play Kasami from the start and we would have probably lost the midfield. Instead, we had 53% possession.

[Berbasilk_111]

what happened to Ruiz out of curiosity? Cant get a look in under the new manager?

[WolverineFFC]

It's easy to say with hindsight, but that is really the kind of team we should be putting out regularly, perhaps with Ruíz as an impact sub. Allows us to really play to Berba's strengths.

Yup. Berbatov looks such a better player when you have out and out wingers stretching the field wider for him. Combined with a pair of midfielders in Karagounis and Parker who can put the ball on his feet instead of hoofing long headers for him to try and win, you have a different player.

The nice thing about the formation is you have players in roles they can excel at. Kaca and Dejagah can run wide. Berbatov gets to spray the ball around. Sidwell, Karagounis, Hughes, Senderos, and Parker's lack of foot speed is less a problem when there is 5 instead of 4 covering the center of the park.

There are issues long term with depth, age, and players not fitting a true role (Ruiz, Taarabat, Bent). But it sure make you feel more optimstic that Rene can put out a squad that tactically performs so well and makes sense in this short an amount of time.

COYW
049:gif

[MJG]

just goes to show what we know about football, no one would of picked that team and we won with ease

True, everyone would play Kasami from the start and we would have probably lost the midfield. Instead, we had 53% possession.

I dont agree with that. I think what we have seen is a system which players need to slot into. Just as Kasami did when he came on.
Much like Roys 442 we are seeing rene go with a 4141 which gives us the 3 central midfielders many of us have been asking for.