Flat back six

[Fez of Mahrez]

No, not a new jazz band...

How would you feel if we set up with an ultra defensive formation at places like Man City and Liverpool next season and tried to sneak a 0-0?

[emmo1987]

Like villa are doing at the minute?

[Finnegan]

Outraged.

 

We should play 4 - 2 - 4 and catch the cnuts unawares.

 

#onlyonekevinkeegan

[AKCJ]

We're not expected to go and play our regular game at those places, we might as well shut up shop and try nick a winner.

[Matt]

It's working for Villa.

 

As a neutral it's awful and disappointing, if it was my own club i'd probably be quite happy

[Finnegan]

Don't see the point for Villa, though. Aren't they safe? Why bother?

[TOMBlcfc]

I wouldn't mind. I actually think it would work a dream with someone like Vardy alone upfront ready for the counter

[ScouseFox]

Anything less than three points is a disappointment

[Dan]

It would be shit because we'd still lose.

[Number 6]

Don't mind us going defensive but not sure 6 at the back is the solution. In the same way that chucking an extra striker on isn't always the answer to more goals. I would be happy seeing a 5 man mid either flat or, preferably, with 1 mid sitting deeper in a 4141.

[Buzzell]

Flat back six (Park The Bus)

[Simonb]

Not the right mentality. . If you concede one you wont score one as youve set up too defensively. .. 541 or 5311 would be better

[Kitchandro]

I just want us to play to our strengths. With the players we have we need to play positively.

 

We don't need to be gung-ho, you can be solid without being negative.

 

I'll certainly be annoyed if we're playing negative football for the next 5 years in an attempt to finish 17th.

[johnny the fox]

villa parked the skip.. didn't work.. pointless.. literally.

[LAprice_]

As previously mentioned, if we do concede a goal whilst using this formation, we are making it almost impossible for us to come-back.

 

Whether we play 3 at the back or 9, we're going to concede goals. Lots of goals. Probably. Set-pieces, screamers, ect... World Class players have world class ways of scoring goals.

 

I would prefer us to win games by scoring more. Both Man City and Liverpool have conceded lots of goals this season. Their defenses have been critisied a lot. We scored vs Man City earlier in the season and we weren't even playing that well. Don't play ultra defensive football.

[red5]

My Porsche had a flat six, that didn't do too bad  :nuge:

[Bayfox]

We need to play our game.

Spurs are what top 7 or 8 by beating the shit teams.

Yet spanked by city, arsenal, liverpool etc.

If we are positive we will win more than we lose. Villa, swansea, Sunderland, hull, even everton, spurs etc have nothing for us to fear.

[MPH]

My only concern for next season is to stay up in the prem and then we can build on that.

[Guest MarshallForEngland]

I don't think it'll work to be honest. West Ham and Norwich against Chelsea, for example. Both were said to be solid defensive displays, especially the West Ham one, but in both game Chelsea smashed the woodwork on more than one occasion and would have netted a few goals if the ball fell to a decent striker. And a few people have rightly mentioned Villa last night - one quality pass from Silva and the floodgates opened. Against players like that, I don't really think we'd cope trying to sit.

[MC Prussian]

If it were a case of needing to survive in the Premier League on the final day, then I could see its use justified.

 

To go out as Villa did, with Premiership status secured for another year, and simply trying to nullify Manchester City's attacking threat in order to prevent them from winning, is a bit coward-ish. And uncool.

 

It isn't a pretty sight when you limit yourself to the odd chance here and there, but generally, I wouldn't want to watch five to nine field players shielding the own box for 90+ minutes.

[Webbo]

Surely if you want to play defensively you'd pack the midfield?

[Fox Ulike]

Ultra-defensive strategies generally don't work at places like Man City. If they did, then Man City wouldn't win so many home games (16 of 18 this year).

 

The key to getting the odd point at the top clubs is just to keep possession of the ball as much as possible. Like Swansea try to do. We have the players who can do this.

 

A back six just invites 90 minutes of pressure, and means that if you do concede a goal (which is pretty much inevitable even by the law of averages) you don't have the players on the pitch to go and get an equaliser.

 

The top 4 win pretty much all their home games anyway: So there's no much point trying to develop a miracle strategy to prevent defeat there. In fact,  I can see more and more teams like us just putting out reserve sides when they go to places like Man City.

[Fox92]

I'll be happy if we did it and got a result, but that's easy to say before the game... We'll have to be prepared to let oppositions such as City, Arsenal and Liverpool to have much more of the ball. But we'd have to make the right decisions when we do have a chance. Yesterday, for example, Villa countered and had a one on one situation but it came to nothing as their striker hit it from about 20/25/30 yards out. Literally just wasted a chance. Hold up the ball and wait for team mates if you can't actually take the last defender on.

[WhispyWizard]

Lets park more buses than Chelsea do!

 

Liverpool need to find a bus to park thats not on concrete blocks.

 

I don't think that any amount of buses will stop us getting beaten, we need to go out in every match looking for a win and getting goals.

[Fox Ulike]

First season in the Prem we should just use those Man City/United/Arse/Live/Chelsea away games to give our players some experience of such games.

 

If we're gonna be successful next season it'll be cos we beat Hull, WBA and Stoke etc at home, not cos we get a surprise point at Anfield.