So Jones to come back any other changes

Alexander Supertramp said:
Where do you play him though?

I think he’s best in the middle, but so is Dael. Dijksteel’s best position is RCB, so does Lenihan end up at LCB? I thought Bola did well there.


The thing is, our best defenders are all perfectly suited to a back 4:

Bola-Lenihan-Fry-Dijksteel

But wilder just refused to try it. I don’t blame Leo really, he’s only in charge for a week.
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I think it's a bit different now the wide centre backs aren't being asked to be "overlapping". In Fry and Lenihan we have two really solid championship centre backs, and I do think Clarke will come good.

I still don't think playing 3 at the back is the way forward for us though, and I think we'd be much better suited to 4 at the back. We don't have the midfielders to play that way. We have natural full backs in Dijksteel and Bola. Jones and Giles can play further up the pitch adding pace and creativity and helping out the full backs when we are defending.

Back to basics, with something like this...

....................Steffen

Dijksteel...Fry...Lenihan...Bola

Jones...Crooks...Hackney...Giles

.............Akpom...Muniz
 
My preferred team, assuming Crooks is unfit is
Steffen
Lenihan - Fry - Bola
Jones - Hackney - Howson - McGree - Giles
Muniz - Akpom
I think Hackney and McGree earned a start. Think we'll need Lenihan, especially if Crooks is out, and his best position is RCB. If you have McNair and one from Luongo/Mowatt on the bench you can tighten up midfield. Dijksteel and Clarke mean you can cover any combination of defensive subs. Forss and Watmore/or another if Watmore isn't fit gives you attacking options. To me this still looks like a top 10 team when it's firing correctly. There are flaws but no more so than any other top 10 championship team.
 
changingman said:
I'd take McNair out I think, Djiksteel RCB, Jones RWB.

Crooks looked livelier on Wednesday, if we can get his and Jones' interplay back to where it was last season we'll be much more of a threat.

McNair has very good delivery from wide but I'm never fully confident when he has the ball in tight spaces and needs to link play quickly. He always looks like he needs longer on the ball than he has.
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I may well be alone in this, but I thought Crooks was absolutely dreadful on Wednesday. Playing alongside Hackney massively exposed how slow and ponderous he is.

Hackney has to stay in the side for me to put some legs around Howson. It was so refreshing to see a midfielder with the legs to get around the pitch and pressure the opposition.

Dijksteel at RCB is an absolute no brainer too. Need pace around Fry.
 
I thought Dijksteel was one of our better players on Wednesday, particularly 1st half though the back pass was a big mistake and yeah, his delivery wasn't great. But the link up on the right hand side was good in the 1st half (and led to the corner for the goal).

I'd be tempted to keep the same team and have Jones to come on 2nd half. Hackney should stay in. Also agree we need Lenihan in at some point, probably for Bola, but not yet.
 
Mayor Goldie Wilson said:
I may well be alone in this, but I thought Crooks was absolutely dreadful on Wednesday. Playing alongside Hackney massively exposed how slow and ponderous he is.

Hackney has to stay in the side for me to put some legs around Howson. It was so refreshing to see a midfielder with the legs to get around the pitch and pressure the opposition.

Dijksteel at RCB is an absolute no brainer too. Need pace around Fry.
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I thought he was livelier than recently first half, and absolutely anonymous 2nd half
 
Away at Millwall i'd be tempted to leave it unchanged, get a foothold in the game (it's usually a battle) and then bring Jones on when it opens up a bit
 
Think Dijksteel's head went after the backpass. Had been great up to that point but was awful afterwards. Could barely pass 5yds and won't even mention his crossing!

I'd bring Lenihan in RCB with Jones RWB. Hopefully Lenihan would offer a bit more protection to Jones than McNair or Djiksteel.

Other than that I'd keep it the same. Bola did enough to warrant a start again as did Hackney. The rest pretty much pick themselves at the moment
 
Going by his form prior to getting booked/banned I wouldn't say Jones is certain to walk back into the team.

(I haven't read previous posts so sorry if anyone's already said that)
 
Bruce said:
My preferred team, assuming Crooks is unfit is
Steffen
Lenihan - Fry - Bola
Jones - Hackney - Howson - McGree - Giles
Muniz - Akpom
I think Hackney and McGree earned a start. Think we'll need Lenihan, especially if Crooks is out, and his best position is RCB. If you have McNair and one from Luongo/Mowatt on the bench you can tighten up midfield. Dijksteel and Clarke mean you can cover any combination of defensive subs. Forss and Watmore/or another if Watmore isn't fit gives you attacking options. To me this still looks like a top 10 team when it's firing correctly. There are flaws but no more so than any other top 10 championship team.
Click to expand...

Id go this as well.

McNair in the back line is a receipe for a disaster, should of had a red the other night and always loses men.

Dijksteel struggled the other night being further forward but he is essential for his recovery speed for me.

Or 4 2 2 2 in possession

Steffan

Dijk Fry Lenihan Bola

Howson Hackney/McGree
Jones Giles

Muniz Akpom

Out of possession Jones and Giles took in.
 
For me we don't have a good enough holding midfielder to only play one in that role. So Howson and Hackney sitting and then Crooks or McGree playing further forward (and be good be able bring the other one on with fresh legs).

If you do that you probably do then need both wing backs to be quick and forward thinking to carry that threat on the counter. So Jones comes back in for me (although do see the logic of keeping it tight and giving him the last 30).
 
DCI_Gene_Hunt said:
Going by his form prior to getting booked/banned I wouldn't say Jones is certain to walk back into the team.

(I haven't read previous posts so sorry if anyone's already said that)
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really? He's been so exposed defensively, constantly going to ground. You have to be at least competent defensively and he needs to tighten that up to come back in for me
 
I’m not too sure if Akpom will be fit as he looked like he had an issue with his leg again against Brum. As far as Jones is concerned I’d keep him as sub — bring him on when they start to tire.
 
I thought Crooks was as slow as his nickname (Tree), however, I wasn’t aware at the time, that he is carrying a hernia problem. Ouch!
 
I'd play Dijksteel on right side of midfield.
He's got pace to drive forward.
His deliveries could be better, maybe closing both eyes before he kicks it would result in picking a boro player 50% of the time.
 
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