Change the midfield

[harpendenfox]

Anxious though I am about pinning our hopes on young Weso, I keep coming back to the fact that it was his introduction at QPR in January that coincided with our three match run of wins that effectively got us out of the mire last season. If I remember rightly he played in three, and we won all three. This must be more than coincidence.

So when he's fit he has to play as the holding midfielder, with Hughes or Williams in a more advanced position. Frankly I don't care which one.

On last night's mini showing I'd give Low a full 90 minutes on the right, and I think the time is right to introduce Sheehan and see if his pace that I've read about (but not witnessed yet), can add some creativity.

Hume seems strangely quiet, although I think he'll come good. But for the moment our anxiety means we're bound to play a number of hoof clearances, so we need O'Grady upfront to try and win some flick throughs for Fryatt.

Thus against Ipswich I'd propose the following line up, assuming (and hoping) that Weso is fit enough to play:

Henderson

Kenton McCarthy Kisnorbo Sheehan (Stearman will return, but is off form)

Low Wesolowski Hughes/Williams Tiatto

Fryatt O'Grady

Bench: Logan, Hume, Stearman, Hughes/Williams, AN other

[GianEmmo Zola]

And he can't head it!!

I would go with

Porter Williams Johnson Lowe

Hughes out wide still lacks pace!

exactly wat id play,

In Goal Henderson

Back four of Maybury, Mcarthey, Kenton, Sheehan

Porter Williams(or weso) Johnson Low

with De Vries and Hume upfront

De Vries would prob do a job with low on the wing, he needs balls crossed into him least he will cause a few problems instead of hume. hume could could feed off any knock downs from de vries

[Monk]

My thinking for a while now is that we'd be better off playing 4-3-1-2 with COG or Hume as the supporting striker. I like the way COG holds the ball up and think it could give us a way of breaking up the play in the middle.

Also by playing 3 in the middle it removes the need to play defenders on the wings. I think if we are to play Tiatto (which I dont want us to!) then he would be better in a 3 man midfied purely because he drifts infield a heck of a lot thus making him a useless winger.

That way the other 2 midfield places would be Williams and AJ. This would vaguely resemble our central midfield of old and I think it would allow us to attack much more in numbers.

The problem with 3-5-2 is that we are still going to have 5 or 6 defenders on the pitch. Give COG a place in the starting lineup without dropping Hume or Fryatt and voila attacking team.

Thoughts

[Fez of Mahrez]

The problem with 3-5-2 is that we are still going to have 5 or 6 defenders on the pitch. Give COG a place in the starting lineup without dropping Hume or Fryatt and voila attacking team.

My problem with 4-3-1-2 is that I think they'd hoof it more due to COG being there. That seems impossible to train out of them.

3-5-2 you'd still have the defenders on the pitch yes, but at least the play would be channelled through the middle where we were most effective when we were winning under Kelly last season. I realise this is also the case with 4-3-1-2 but I think that would lead to a long-ball approach (and I don't rate O'Grady personally).

[Mort]

Henderson

Kenton McCarthy Kisnorbo Sheehan (Stearman will return, but is off form)

Low Wesolowski Hughes/Williams Tiatto

Fryatt O'Grady

Bench: Logan, Hume, Stearman, Hughes/Williams, AN other

Not Tiatto!... he's been at best shoddy the last two games, indeed he's never been anything other than poor with us, that's ignoring the fact he should never be on the wings, plum for an offensive(occasionally creative player) like Hughes or fast player like Hammond or Porter... what Tiatto's even doing still in the team beats me, choice between no player and Tiatto and on the basis of the last few years going wtih "no player" is a no-brainer IMHO.

As for my two cents on line up, I agree with most of what you've got...

Henderson

Stearman McCarthy Kisnorbo Kenton

Low Wesolowski Williams Porter

Fryatt O'Grady

Subs: Logan, McAuley, Hughes, Johnson, O'Grady, Hammond.

...I'd be happy for Sheehan to come on to the left and Kenton to take over from Stearman if he didnt look like he was up to it, at the same time Hughes going onto the left if you wanted to bring Porter on later might also make sense, he was ok there last season (better than Tiatto at any rate!).