Fryatt Needs A Rest

[Stuliasz]

To me at the moment it seems Matty Fryatt is in desperate need of a rest. I thought the Cov game was his worst performance and whilst I am not saying he's not as good as we thought, I am saying the he has taken so many knocks and has played in every game so he should be rested for the Plymouth game and then played again on the final day.

[Strokes]

To me at the moment it seems Matty Fryatt is in desperate need of a rest. I thought the Cov game was his worst performance and whilst I am not saying he's not as good as we thought, I am saying the he has taken so many knocks and has played in every game so he should be rested for the Plymouth game and then played again on the final day.

I agree, i think also Hume should be rested and we should look at giving O'Grady and Dodds a game or two.

[LCFC UK]

To me at the moment it seems Matty Fryatt is in desperate need of a rest. I thought the Cov game was his worst performance and whilst I am not saying he's not as good as we thought, I am saying the he has taken so many knocks and has played in every game so he should be rested for the Plymouth game and then played again on the final day.

There knacked, they do the work of the missing wingers as well as there own job upfront.

[Phube]

I agree too, considering the fact he's had a dodgy hamstring since before we bought him. There is no need over using a not quite fully fit player when we are not in peril. Let's make sure both he and Hume are perfectly ready for the start of next season!!

[LCFC UK]

Maybe he will start with O'Grady and Hammond upfront considering Fryatt and Hume have knocks?

[Ric Flair]

Maybe he will start with O'Grady and Hammond upfront considering Fryatt and Hume have knocks?

Well if O'Grady doesn't get a start after scoring 4 goals in a game albeit for the reserves then it's a little harsh. Kelly has said players must earn the right to wear the shirt but what incentive is there for a player if they bang goals in left, right and centre for the ressies but never get a start yet an old journeymen with a disciplinary and injury record worse than anything i've seen in a long while automatically walks back in to the first team when available.

[Strokes]

Maybe he will start with O'Grady and Hammond upfront considering Fryatt and Hume have knocks?

Well O'Grady certainly deserves a start after scoring four for the ressies, and i would rather have a look at Dodds than Elvis, we all know what Elvis's strength an weaknesses are, i know next to nothing about Dodds but would think that giving him some first team action now would really help his development.

[Phube]

Well if O'Grady doesn't get a start after scoring 4 goals in a game albeit for the reserves then it's a little harsh. Kelly has said players must earn the right to wear the shirt but what incentive is there for a player if they bang goals in left, right and centre for the ressies but never get a start yet an old journeymen with a disciplinary and injury record worse than anything i've seen in a long while automatically walks back in to the first team when available.

I'm assuming your talking about Tiatto?? If not who??

[Ric Flair]

I'm assuming your talking about Tiatto?? If not who??

Correct. Pisses me off that he manages to walk back in to the team, yet players like O'Grady and Sheehan struggle to even get on the bench. We haven't won a league match this season when Tiatto has played, isn't that a little disturbing?.

[chili_con_carne]

for the plymouth game i would use this team to rest a few and give young players a go.

henderson (in goal)

stearman (right bk)

sheehan (left bk)

mccarthy (centre bk)

gerrbrand (centre bk)

porter (right mid)

welsh (left mid)

gudjonsson (centre mid)

hughes (centre mid)

o grady (forwrd)

dodds (forwrd)

And then an experienced subs bench just incase.

[LCFC UK]

Correct. Pisses me off that he manages to walk back in to the team, yet players like O'Grady and Sheehan struggle to even get on the bench. We haven't won a league match this season when Tiatto has played, isn't that a little disturbing?.

Tiatto played on left mid to be fair though, the only players who play there are Welsh and Hughes.

Maybe he is looking for something in Tiatto to keep hold of him for another season, who knows.

[Ric Flair]

Tiatto played on left mid to be fair though, the only players who play there are Welsh and Hughes.

Maybe he is looking for something in Tiatto to keep hold of him for another season, who knows.

O'Grady played on the wing for 3 months at Rushden and was very impressive according to their fans, I know he's not an out and out winger and it's best to play players in their correct positions but it hasn't stopped us playing Maybury, Nissa and Hughes out of position.

[The Stig]

i would give hammond a game see if he can put in a good preformance and give o gardy and dodds 45 mins each, does anyone know if Mr Crippled Lee Morris will be fit before the end of the season

[LCFC UK]

O'Grady played on the wing for 3 months at Rushden and was very impressive according to their fans, I know he's not an out and out winger and it's best to play players in their correct positions but it hasn't stopped us playing Maybury, Nissa and Hughes out of position.

Tiatto plays on the left though, he is a Left back/Wing Back and Kelly obviously feels he can offer something on the wing, at the least it is his natural side.

O'grady surely would be on the right wing not the left and to be fair cant see him providing anything from either of the wings as he is a striker/forward and still unexperianced to be playing out of position.

Hughe's some how manages to start on the left sometimes which is beyond me and Maybury is covering Right wing again i dont agree with but there is no one else who can do a job there.

Sylla needs shooting, maybe porter - id like to see him on the right wing instead of Maybury for the last game/s and then look at strengthening in them mentioned area's in the summer/preseason

[Jon the Hat]

O'Grady played on the wing for 3 months at Rushden and was very impressive according to their fans, I know he's not an out and out winger and it's best to play players in their correct positions but it hasn't stopped us playing Maybury, Nissa and Hughes out of position.

I always think it's harsh giving players a chance and then putting them out of position. Remember Gupps coming on for England, and being played on the right!!!

[Jimmy]

Tiatto played on left mid to be fair though, the only players who play there are Welsh and Hughes.

Maybe he is looking for something in Tiatto to keep hold of him for another season, who knows.

no tiatto was supposed to be playing left wing but was never there, when nils got the ball on a break you could see he was desperate for twatto to make a run but he was on the other side of the pitch

[Thracian]

O'Grady played on the wing for 3 months at Rushden and was very impressive according to their fans, I know he's not an out and out winger and it's best to play players in their correct positions but it hasn't stopped us playing Maybury, Nissa and Hughes out of position.

Apart from exceptional circumstances, Leicester have a rigid 4-4-2 system which doesn't always enable us to select our best team. Too often we are adjusting the players to suit the system rather than fitting the system to the players.

It can be fatal (as Levein discovered) because it means you never have your strongest team of footballers on the field and, instead, you inevitably have weaknesses.

Okay, you need a favoured system which everyone in the club understands and, looking at Academy and Reserve games, that would seem to be the case already.

Surely then we need to develop genuine alternatives, to look at 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 with wing backs. You have to play to your strengths. If we have two good strikers and a third one is on fire (like with four goals) you should try to find ways of fitting them all in to a system that suits everyone.

That doesn't mean playing anyone out of position.

It's what I've meant when questioning whether Kelly has the vision and sense of adventure to be a good manager...to forever be a step ahead of the opposition. He may have, he may not.

But he will fast find that his opponents will quickly counter his tactics if he is too predictable, too simple.

Football, he will find, is actually a complex game that can only be consistently won by people who know and understand what each of their team-mates is likely to do and therefore make it look simple.

To play O'Grady rigidly wide, for instance, would waste his abilities. Instead play three strikers and use wing backs.

[Ric Flair]

Apart from exceptional circumstances, Leicester have a rigid 4-4-2 system which doesn't always enable us to select our best team. Too often we are adjusting the players to suit the system rather than fitting the system to the players.

It can be fatal (as Levein discovered) because it means you never have your strongest team of footballers on the field and, instead, you inevitably have weaknesses.

Okay, you need a favoured system which everyone in the club understands and, looking at Academy and Reserve games, that would seem to be the case already.

Surely then we need to develop genuine alternatives, to look at 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 with wing backs. You have to play to your strengths. If we have two good strikers and a third one is on fire (like with four goals) you should try to find ways of fitting them all in to a system that suits everyone.

That doesn't mean playing anyone out of position.

It's what I've meant when questioning whether Kelly has the vision and sense of adventure to be a good manager...to forever be a step ahead of the opposition. He may have, he may not.

But he will fast find that his opponents will quickly counter his tactics if he is too predictable, too simple.

Football, he will find, is actually a complex game that can only be consistently won by people who know and understand what each of their team-mates is likely to do and therefore make it look simple.

To play O'Grady rigidly wide, for instance, would waste his abilities. Instead play three strikers and use wing backs.

Excellent points, I agree. There aren't many managers out there that change systems regularly though. They seem to have one formation and pick the players to fit it, if certain players are unavailable then they throw someone else in to that position. Whether changing the system to suit the players available would be more effective than playing players out of position is hard to prove but it would seem logical.

As regard to O'Grady, I thought he looked dangerous when he came on against Preston and played as a wide striker alongside Hume and Fryatt. I know he was playing alot further up field than wingers do, but he can give full-backs torrid times with his strength and pace. He also seems to be getting better in the air aswell, won a great flick on which led to a decent chance I believe.

[Thracian]

Excellent points, I agree. There aren't many managers out there that change systems regularly though. They seem to have one formation and pick the players to fit it, if certain players are unavailable then they throw someone else in to that position. Whether changing the system to suit the players available would be more effective than playing players out of position is hard to prove but it would seem logical.

As regard to O'Grady, I thought he looked dangerous when he came on against Preston and played as a wide striker alongside Hume and Fryatt. I know he was playing alot further up field than wingers do, but he can give full-backs torrid times with his strength and pace. He also seems to be getting better in the air aswell, won a great flick on which led to a decent chance I believe.

After being under the cosh, we created several excellent chances in the closing stages when O'Grady came on and Welsh went wide, including the classy flick on you mentioned. Before that we played too narrow and it was bread and butter for Preston's bigger/tougher team. O'Grady was a handful and looked as fit as any footballer I've ever seen.

To me it's a waste not to accomodate him, especially when we are ordinary in midfield/wide right and he is energetic enough to help. With Hume and Fryatt scoring or making goals week on week the only answer would be to play all three. They would be a real handful for anyone.

[Ric Flair]

After being under the cosh, we created several excellent chances in the closing stages when O'Grady came on and Welsh went wide, including the classy flick on you mentioned. Before that we played too narrow and it was bread and butter for Preston's bigger/tougher team. O'Grady was a handful and looked as fit as any footballer I've ever seen.

To me it's a waste not to accomodate him, especially when we are ordinary in midfield/wide right and he is energetic enough to help. With Hume and Fryatt scoring or making goals week on week the only answer would be to play all three. They would be a real handful for anyone.

My sentiments exactly, it was food and drink to the Preston defence everytime we tried balls over the top for Fryatt anf Hume. But when we mixed things up by bringing O'Grady on and stretching the defence we looked far more threatening.

[The Don]

Thrac - you mention that changing formation is better than fitting square pegs into round holes.

I would like to point out that at Man U at the start of the season they wanted to play, park, giggs ronaldo, ,rooney. They started changing systems to fit all their best players in, and it didn't work, they started off awful.

Have you noticed recently, they have been playing a straight 442, but playing a centre back and left wing in centre midfield. They are playing better football now and getting the results it has deserved.

Admittedly the ability of the square pegs are better than ours, but so is the standard of teams they are facing.

[Thracian]

Thrac - you mention that changing formation is better than fitting square pegs into round holes.

I would like to point out that at Man U at the start of the season they wanted to play, park, giggs ronaldo, ,rooney. They started changing systems to fit all their best players in, and it didn't work, they started off awful.

Have you noticed recently, they have been playing a straight 442, but playing a centre back and left wing in centre midfield. They are playing better football now and getting the results it has deserved.

Admittedly the ability of the square pegs are better than ours, but so is the standard of teams they are facing.

A key difference is that Manchester United don't have such glaring shortcomings as ours. They are at the top or thereabouts but we have to increase our goals threat to challenge in the Championship and at the moment have too many players who do not contribute anything notable in an attacking sense.

Adjusting our tactics should not be hard because everyone in the club is familiar with 4-4-2 and everyone is well known to the others. Already we have adjusted our system for shortish periods of play when the situation has demanded it and it has not looked amiss.

Somehow we've got to find those 20 extra goals per season. We have no aerial presence. O'Grady provides something in that department. He has energy, strength and a genuine scoring threat because his technique is as good or better than anyone else's.

With Stearman and Sheehan out wide we would have the basis of a genuinely threatening side with those three front men.

Something along the lines of:

New keeper;

Stearman, McCarthy, Kisnorbo, Sheehan,

From: Maybury, Williams, Wesolowski, Hughes, AN Other.

Hume, O'Grady, Fryatt.

Nils, and Hammond would remain as cover or be replaced by better alternatives.

Gerrbrand, Brevett, DeVries, Douglas, Sylla, Tiatto, Gudjonsson, Logan would disappear from the payroll either sold or loaned out.

Suddenly we have six potential scorers in the side and seven potential creators plus a bit of heading ability while not losing anything of our ability to compete.

Sign McAuley plus a winger and a midfield player, include Henderson, Dodds, Chambers and Porter and you have a perfectly capable young team of 18/20 players with all round ability and reasonable cover.

Overall cost probably £0.5million which would be more than recouped with the outgoing sales/loans.

I don't suggest this is the perfect scenario but it's a practical use of what we've got right now and only has Maybury who could loosely be described as being out of position. If Welsh could be retained as an outright winger, fine, but he doesn't seem up to midfield/winger together and there may be better, faster/stronger options.

Another alternative would be 3-4-3 along the lines of:

McCarthy, McAuley/Gerrbrand, Kisnorbo

Stearman, Williams, Hughes/Wesolowski, Sheehan

Hume, O'Grady, Fryatt.

That gives eight potential scorers and seven creators.

With today's staff it could be a Stearman, McCarthy, Kisnorbo back three and Maybury instead of Stearman right midfield.

The point is we increase our goals threat and decrease our weaknesses.

[The Don]

No, Man U don't have as many shortcomings as ourselves, you are correct, but what they do have is an expectensy to do well, to win the league, to win cups. When they don't win the league, it is seen as a failure. So yes, they have really great players, but my argument was that playing players in a system that works, is far better than playing different systems week in week out. Look at the prem, Man U 442 - since played in that stsyem, been awsome. Chelsea, 4321 - unbeatable - liverpool - 442.

Surely it is better to have one system, everyone knows what roles each others have, and it is easy for interchanging between positions.

433 may well be our best formation, 343?? or even 442. Thats what we should be using pre season for. But once we have our best formation, i believe we should be using that (almost) religiously.

[Thracian]

No, Man U don't have as many shortcomings as ourselves, you are correct, but what they do have is an expectensy to do well, to win the league, to win cups. When they don't win the league, it is seen as a failure. So yes, they have really great players, but my argument was that playing players in a system that works, is far better than playing different systems week in week out. Look at the prem, Man U 442 - since played in that stsyem, been awsome. Chelsea, 4321 - unbeatable - liverpool - 442.

Surely it is better to have one system, everyone knows what roles each others have, and it is easy for interchanging between positions.

433 may well be our best formation, 343?? or even 442. Thats what we should be using pre season for. But once we have our best formation, i believe we should be using that (almost) religiously.

Hold on. Who said anything about different systems week in week out?. Systems are often changed in this way during a match but I am by no means saying we should chop and change our starting system.

I am saying we play 4-4-2 right now and it doesn't seem to utilise enough of our best players and leaves us with too many weaknesses.

So I'm suggesting we look at 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 as an alternative regular system with the players we have bearing in mind that we are not strong on the flanks, have no aerial capability and are limited creatively.

It is folly to waste the abilities of good players and have to include weaker ones if there is a sensible way of avoiding it. We are 17th with our 4-4-2 system this season. Hardly an argument for casting the system in stone.

[The Don]

Hold on. Who said anything about different systems week in week out?. Systems are often changed in this way during a match but I am by no means saying we should chop and change our starting system.

I am saying we play 4-4-2 right now and it doesn't seem to utilise enough of our best players and leaves us with too many weaknesses.

So I'm suggesting we look at 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 as an alternative regular system with the players we have bearing in mind that we are not strong on the flanks, have no aerial capability and are limited creatively.

It is folly to waste the abilities of good players and have to include weaker ones if there is a sensible way of avoiding it. We are 17th with our 4-4-2 system this season. Hardly an argument for casting the system in stone.

No you didn't say different systems week in week out, you said play the system to make best use out of the players' skills, form etc.

As you must realise, players form goes up and down, players get injured, suspended. Therefore meaning the set of players will chop and change each week. therefore shouldn't the formation change each week depending on which players are available at the time??

Going to a 433 system, in my opinion would not work with the players we have. At the moment we have 4 centre midfielders (wingers tucking in) and we still get overrun in midfield, taking one out and putting a striker will mean we miss out on the midfield even more than we do now and we'll and up hoofing it more.

Same with 343, the left/ right midfield, will end up playing fullback, also the opposition full backs are free to over lap. leaving the centre midfield 2 on 2 and as I've said, we can't compete when there's 4 in there.

What I believe we need to do is get a midfielder to replace joey - I have never rated him, and keep the ball on the floor, the players in the side are all comfortable on the ball, and pass our way out of the division. But we need a decent midfielder to accompany hughes.