Did we put all our eggs in the 352 basket?

[Bassomylord]

at the start of the season DH openly came out and stated how he wanted us to play 352 and that was his vision for the side.....after quickly realising that you do have to change when things aren't working he reverted to a 433......with a big problem in that we don't seem to have any players who naturally play as wide men.

Other than O Dowda and possibly Semenyo we have no one else in the squad who plays as wide midfielders/forwards.....resulting in the situation we are now in with square pegs in round holes. This then leads to a real lack of creativity which is now starting to cost us at home.

I haven't been overly impressed by Wells.....but he is a poacher, a goalscorer.....he is not a wode forward and how could we expect him to be.....and as for Semenyo.....so young, so raw...

Surely we should have covered the basics and replaced Eliasson......rather than getting in the likes of Martin and Brunt we should have seen where we could be potentially after the TW and recruited more effectively.

Injuries have obviously hit us hard and DH has done a very good job in the circumstances.....but there a big concerns.

Martin doesn't look like scoring.....1 in 16 I believe......Diedhiou looks WAY off the pace, surely all this talk of an imminent contract signing is smoke and mirrors. Semenyo looks dangerous but rarely gets into golden goalscoring positions and Wells is being played out wide.....big concerns.

352 stopped working when the front 2 became isolated.....433 is not making us solid at the back or helping us create chances. It can be a chore to watch.

How do we solve this problem? Or is it a case of just having to get on with it and this dull boring football until if/when some of our players return???? Either way surely a wide man (or 2) must be a priority in January?

 

[Dolman_Stand]

Think Baker and Mawson's injuries have made it difficult to play 32 on a regular basis, I wouldn't be suprised to see a winger come in January but its difficult to convince anyone of real quality to join when they can't start in our preferred formation.

[Davefevs]

1 minute ago, Bassomylord said:

at the start of the season DH openly came out and stated how he wanted us to play 352 and that was his vision for the side.....after quickly realising that you do have to change when things aren't working he reverted to a 433......with a big problem in that we don't seem to have any players who naturally play as wide men.

Other than O Dowda and possibly Semenyo we have no one else in the squad who plays as wide midfielders/forwards.....resulting in the situation we are now in with square pegs in round holes. This then leads to a real lack of creativity which is now starting to cost us at home.

I haven't been overly impressed by Wells.....but he is a poacher, a goalscorer.....he is not a wode forward and how could we expect him to be.....and as for Semenyo.....so young, so raw...

Surely we should have covered the basics and replaced Eliasson......rather than getting in the likes of Martin and Brunt we should have seen where we could be potentially after the TW and recruited more effectively.

Injuries have obviously hit us hard and DH has done a very good job in the circumstances.....but there a big concerns.

Martin doesn't look like scoring.....1 in 16 I believe......Diedhiou looks WAY off the pace, surely all this talk of an imminent contract signing is smoke and mirrors. Semenyo looks dangerous but rarely gets into golden goalscoring positions and Wells is being played out wide.....big concerns.

352 stopped working when the front 2 became isolated.....433 is not making us solid at the back or helping us create chances. It can be a chore to watch.

How do we solve this problem? Or is it a case of just having to get on with it and this dull boring football until if/when some of our players return???? Either way surely a wide man (or 2) must be a priority in January?

 

I want him to actually put the 11 eggs back into the 352 basket.

[Bassomylord]

Just now, Davefevs said:

I want him to actually put the 11 eggs back into the 352 basket.

My point isn't whether he is right or wrong.....my point is why did we not have any wide players!!!

[Davefevs]

2 minutes ago, Bassomylord said:

My point isn't whether he is right or wrong.....my point is why did we not have any wide players!!!

I’m hoping he sees that the change to 433 was a short-term necessity due to injury, etc....and he needs to get back to 352 and confirms to himself he doesn’t need wingers.

[A Horse With No Name]

4 minutes ago, Bassomylord said:

My point isn't whether he is right or wrong.....my point is why did we not have any wide players!!!

Exactly. How good would it have been to have had Elliasson on the bench today.

[IAmNick]

10 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I want him to actually put the 11 eggs back into the 352 basket.

I don't really care which basket he puts his eggs in, it doesn't have to be 352 (although it would make sense as he recruited for it and has presumably predominantly trained for it) but he needs to chose one now. Maybe one smaller basket nearby in case of emergencies.

I'm a bit concerned we've gone in the space of a month or two from being able to pretty much pick the team, or at least their "positions" / jobs on the pitch to it being a little bit of a surprise, which is always concerning for me.

[Dullmoan Tone]

4 minutes ago, The Horse With No Name said:

Exactly. How good would it have been to have had Elliasson on the bench today.

This was exactly why he left.

We didn’t start him enough. He was always on the bench.

He would have stayed there sadly until the 85th minute and then try too hard to make an impact.

[Davefevs]

10 minutes ago, IAmNick said:

I don't really care which basket he puts his eggs in, it doesn't have to be 352 (although it would make sense as he recruited for it and has presumably predominantly trained for it) but he needs to chose one now. Maybe one smaller basket nearby in case of emergencies.

I'm a bit concerned we've gone in the space of a month or two from being able to pretty much pick the team, or at least their "positions" / jobs on the pitch to it being a little bit of a surprise, which is always concerning for me.

Agree.  Bit of inexperience me thinks.

[Portland Bill]

55 minutes ago, Bassomylord said:

My point isn't whether he is right or wrong.....my point is why did we not have any wide players!!!

I’m presuming he thought the wing backs would give us width. The problem is that it’s very difficult to counter attack ( or catch the opposition out) quickly when those two are back defending.

How I would love to see an out and out winger with some pace playing for us. 
The football we are currently playing is so negative.

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 hour ago, Portland Bill said:

I’m presuming he thought the wing backs would give us width. The problem is that it’s very difficult to counter attack ( or catch the opposition out) quickly when those two are back defending.

How I would love to see an out and out winger with some pace playing for us. 
The football we are currently playing is so negative.

I wonder though.

Out and out wingers, traditional wingers. Stifle and counter if you're a modernly setup opposition side. I get the impression that it can be tactically limited or scoring can be inefficient with this setup.

Wing backs in a 3-5-2 can be pinned back, or bypassed with overloading a 2 v 1 situation. However wingbacks and wide forwards. 

Not a fan of Wells on the left however!

[The Journalist]

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I want him to actually put the 11 eggs back into the 352 basket.

Ideally with Chris Martin and Nahki Wells as the front two.

I think both are far better playing in a two than the three and they’re our best front two too - as harsh as that might be on Semenyo.

I don’t think we’ve played 3-5-2 with Martin and Wells starting since the Middlesbrough game, which ended our unbeaten start.

[Prinny]

I've made multiple posts pointing out the issues with how we're cramming people into a system and not using them to their strengths so I won't do the same thing again.

The solution is.... Make better decisions in recruitment. Simple huh.

If we want a lower squad number AND we want to play multiple formations, we need to invest in quality players who have the attributes to play in multiple positions. That's expensive. That takes time, (and Covid) and we have a lot of money tied up in players who are inflexible, especially up front.

We can't authorise signing players like Nahki Wells, who are good players but very restricted in effective areas. We certainly shouldn't sign them, then not play them in a system that suits them.

[cidercity1987]

Correct me if I'm wrong but yesterday was the first points we dropped playing 4-3-3.

Huddersfield Win

Cardiff Win

Derby Win

Then  bizarrely back to 3-5-2 for Watford Draw and Reading Loss

4-3-3 again

QPR Win

Birmingham Loss

 

[Rocking Red Cyril]

I think we lost a lot of attacking options by not playing Hunt and Dasilva. And wherewe better at the back with their replacements?

I am not sure 

[chinapig]

I don't think the formation is the issue. More a question of intent I think. If your intent is to play attacking football you can do it with 3-5-2 or 4-3-3. You can also play negative, pedestrian football with the same formations.

Despite being promised the former we seem to have decided on the latter.