Reverting to a 4-4-2 system has made us a lot more solid and has seen Bidwell return to the form he showed when he was with that other mob. I thought that Bidwell and Pav were our best 2 players against Fulham.
Agreed stoatey! You and northwesthoop are both right in identifying that our transformation directly relates to moving from 3 x CBs to a solid Back 4. I was in favour of a 3-5-2 formation but either I was wrong or the team was not built for it. Bidwell and Pav have excelled in this formation, and it has done Furlong no harm either. It does need a good ball-mover in front of them though, and that is not any of the current 3 midfielders in my opinion as their ball-distribution is not as good as their other skills. So would be talking about Grant Hall slotting back in there, alongside Scowen and Luongo?
Reverting to a 4-4-2 system has made us a lot more solid and has seen Bidwell return to the form he showed when he was with that other mob. I thought that Bidwell and Pav were our best 2 players against Fulham.
Agreed stoatey ! You and northwesthoop are both right in identifying that our transformation directly relates to moving from 3 x CBs to a solid Back 4. I was in favour of a 3-5-2 formation but either I was wrong or the team was not built for it. Bidwell and Pav have excelled in this formation, and it has done Furlong no harm either. It does need a good ball-mover in front of them though, and that is not any of the current 3 midfielders in my opinion as their ball-distribution is not as good as their other skills. So would be talking about Grant Hall slotting back in there, alongside Scowen and Luongo?
I'm not sure that we have ever looked comfortable when we have played the 3 - 5 - 2 formation. At times it has worked for us but even in those games where we won playing that system and those games last season when Grant Hall was in the team I still thought we were sometimes just getting away with it. The biggest surprise for me is after so many poor performances this season why Ollie never went back to the 4 - 4 -2 . Maybe he wasn' confident in the players but I have to say that against Villa and the 2nd half against Fulham I thought we played some of the best football we have played in the last 2 seasons. I know that quite a few teams have discarded the 4-4-2 system but it seems to suit our current players and if it works then Iets stick with it until at least the end of the season. The 3-5 -2 system has been the preferred system of many teams for a few years but I have no doubt that after this years World Cup a new system of play will come to the fore.
