Who plays and where when Harvey Barnes is fit again?

[enmac]

Don't know how accurate it is but according to fotmob, which is usually reliable, Barnes will be fit early May. Of course he'll come on as a sub for the first few games but when fully fit, what's our best line up? Could we play with a front three, which seems unlikely? Drop Vardy or Kel?

Only top 4 teams have this sort of problem! 

[Torten]

Back 4? So one of Fofana, Evans or Soyuncu. I couldn't choose.

[honeybradger]

Team 1:

 

Barnes vardy ricardo

Maddison ndidi tielemans

Thomas soyuncu fofana castagne

 

Team 2:

 

          Vardy iheanacho

              Maddison

Thomas ndidi tielemans Castagne

        Soyuncu evans fofana

 

Rotate between both teams 

[urban.spaceman]

When Ricardo was coming back to full fitness we had Justin there who was excelling in so many places in the XI, so we absolutely didn't have to rush him.

 

Same with Barnes - Brendan has found a way to tweak the XI so that it excels without him - there's no need to rush him back when we've got a formation that is allowing Senior Man to thrive.

 

So I guess my answer is, keep everything as it is while we're doing well, and keep Barnes on the bench for now.

[Finnegan]

I genuinely wouldn't like to have to make the decision to be honest. One way or another, you lose someone exceptional which is a real credit to the club and how far we've come. 

 

I'd probably like to see a 433 with Barnes and Vards flanking Iheanacho. Madders returns to his number 8 slot in a midfield resembling last season with YT and Ndidi. 

 

Whichever flank Vards is on, he'd want to be sitting a bit narrower and running the channels as opposed to holding width, so he'd need good support from the full back but nearly all of ours are exceptional at that now. 

[AKCJ]

Barnes has to win his place back for me.

[fazzyfox]

It would be great to have both of those options / formations available to us for the Cup Final and just let Brendan reveal it when the team sheet goes in, Tuchel seems to be a meticulous planner and these are two very different scenarios to deal with. Even during the game with a substitution we could switch between the two. The thought of having the CBs, Ndidi, Youri, Madison, Barnes, Vardy, Nacho available to appear at some point of each and every game fills me with confidence that nothing is unachievable. Add Ricardo, Castagne, Albrighton and Thomas in a horses for courses manor and we can achieve both our objectives this season.

[LVFox]

Rodgers has shown he is happy to switch tactics based on the opposition, but I have to say I think the starting 11 yesterday was about as strong as we can get (Justin in for Thomas, and obviously Ricardo returning to full fitness and form could change that too).

 

Barnes will still play plenty of matches, and form/injury will mean plenty of that will be played left wing. But I also feel he could be a Vardy backup.

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Same team, Barnes on the bench, and what a player to bring on after 60 mins 

[HybridFox]

Whenever he's back, he'll come on to score the equaliser 

[enmac]

What makes it even more difficult is that Vardy is becoming deadly on the left flank, which is just where Barnes plays. Probably bench for me. Maybe he'll become the long term replacement for Vardy?If so, do we really need another striker? If we do get another one, will he ever play? 

[filbertway]

4 2 3 1 again. Marky Marc on one wing and Barnes on the other.

[turlo]

With only 1 month of the season left I can't see Barnes playing more than an impact sub role for the rest of this season, giving us the option to switch to a 4 1 4 1 in game. 

 

If the club focuses on signing a top class right sided winger in the summer then it's likely Rodgers will favour 4 1 4 1 next season and will have some tough choices to make with who starts at the back and up front - I still think the back 2 would be Evans + 1

[Sharpe's Fox]

Ihaeanacho and one of the centre backs comes out for me. I still don’t think that the levels of performance with a 3-5-2 are at the same level as when we play a 4-3-3 with Barnes in the side. Everything just seems more laboured and slow with the way we play at the moment.

[Mark]

As well as we’ve done without them the last few games we lost a lot of dynamic exciting play without Justin and Barnes on the left. Hopefully we finally sign a good right winger and go 4-2-3-1 again next season as we have most of this until recently.

[Sampson]

How can anyone think of dropping Iheanacho?

 

As good as Barnes has been. You can't put him in this side atm.

 

Unless we somehow get them all in, which would likely mean converting one of Iheanacho or Vardy to a winger.

[simon789us]

Tough one to choose then in summer with a couple of quality signings get even harder but thats brendans problem

[matty98]

I don't think it'll be an issue really, Barnes is unlikely to start again this season and I expect Vardy to be rotated more next season.

[Babylon]

Not ideal having him wide, but it gets them on the pitch. If Vardy was 26 it would be easier, he could go wider. 

 

                Vardy

Barnes    Nacho     Madison

     Tielemans     Ndidi

 

I don't know, I've changed it about 20 times. 

 

 

 

Edited 23 April 2021 by Babylon

[Sharpe's Fox]

1 minute ago, Sampson said:

How can anyone think of dropping Iheanacho?

Because when it comes down to it Vardy is still a better all round performer and Ihaenacho’s record of scoring a goal a game at the moment isn’t exactly consistent, unless we have the new Ronaldo on our hands. Of course this is all redundant this season because Barnes certainly isn’t coming back to see it out. I am thinking how we approach games next season and we are better with Vardy up top and Barnes on the left imo

[kingfox]

3 at the back isn’t everyone’s cup of tea; however in recent games, there’s been numerous signs that it’s starting to click.

 

With the kind of form the back 3 and Iheanacho are in, it would be ridiculous to revert back to 4-2-3-1, even when Barnes becomes fit again.

 

With stats like that, plus Iheanacho’s current goal tally, why would you change a working formula...

[Gerard]

Were playing a back five out of necessity at the moment as it gets our best players on the pitch and we have poor options in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

 

I expect next season we'll sign a RW and go back to 4-2-3-1 but we'll play 3-4-1-2 for the remaining of this season unless a key CB gets injured and Barnes is back fighting fit.

 

Even in a 3-4-1-2 we can play a combination of any three from four between Maddison, Barnes, Vardy and Iheanacho. I expect Barnes will only be at 95% the remaining of the season if he's only back in May so no problem for this season fitting in all of our top players.

[Grebfromgrebland]

A great problem to have, longer term Barnes is Vardys replacement in the first team

[enmac]

2 minutes ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

A great problem to have, longer term Barnes is Vardys replacement in the first team

So you don't think we need another striker which people have been going on about all season? 

[Finnegan]

21 minutes ago, filbertway said:

4 2 3 1 again. Marky Marc on one wing and Barnes on the other.

 

No offence but I cannot get my head around someone who would drop one of Vardy, Iheanacho or Maddison (which you'd have to do) to try and shoehorn Marc Albrighton in to the team.