You are the manager, what would you do?

Nero said:
Stop messing about with a 3-5-1-1 formation. Having McGree as the 10 is confusing matters and it's impacting the midfield. The best Wilder teams play with two genuine forward players. It doesn't matter if one has to be Forss or Hoppe for 60 minutes until Watmore arrives.
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Don't think it's so much the McGree 10 problem, when we play to the strength of that, like ball to feet, it's just we don't want to seem to do that as we panic on the ball. We need to look at what is causing that, and to me it's the defence lumping it, and passengers in midfield. I've barely noticed Mowatt playing, in any of the games, that's not a good sign, and Crooks has been largely quiet too.

McGree needs to go in the midfield two for me, certainly until we get someone in there who is a no 1 starter for one of those 3 CM positions. It's irrelevant how the front two play, if we can't get it to them effectively.
 
Two strikers, seriously tighten up at the back - pick three players and stick to them, grind out clean sheets no matter what. There’s no shame in 0-0’s, we’ve got creative quality and will get goals. Put some midfielders on a Red Bull infusion and pray for more energy in there.
 
jonny_greenings_sock said:
Two strikers, seriously tighten up at the back - pick three players and stick to them, grind out clean sheets no matter what. There’s no shame in 0-0’s, we’ve got creative quality and will get goals. Put some midfielders on a Red Bull infusion and pray for more energy in there.
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Or suck up to the right people and become RB Boro.
 
Make the most of what I had.

We have potentially a couple of OK keepers.
We have a back 3 who don’t carry the ball out - they pass side to side and teams just sit back. We need someone who will bring the ball out from the back and draw teams forward to create space behind. This is the fundamental issue for me at the moment. Fry simply can’t do that. Clarke isn’t doing it. McNair can but is so off form. Lenihan can as can Bola but Djiksteel is by far the best.
Giles is quality on the left, needs strong cover in front of him though. Jones is neither one thing or the other and looks a shadow of the player who started last season. I think he needs to play a more forward role. Crooks is completely lost and Mowatt and Howson are good players for periods of the game but not consistent. McGree looks good but not as a 10 and Muniz could be a real handful but is already looking frustrated. His header last night shows what he can do with a quality cross.
I would shake things up massively with this first 11.

—————- Roberts—————-

Smith ——- Clarke —- Bola —— Giles

—————— Djiksteel——————-

Jones ———— Luongo——McGree—-

———- Akpom ——- Muniz ————

Wilder won’t as he loves his back 3 but alternatively he could go this 11 Saturday night.

—————- Roberts—————-

—- Clarke - — Fry ———-Bola ———-

—————— Djiksteel——————-

Luongo——McGree—- —- Giles

Jones ———- Akpom ——- Muniz
 
Wilder has big problems to solve, but they can be solved if he is prepared to be flexible. Our biggest issue is his massive ask of our sorely lacking midfield. Tavernier was absolutely key to this system, and is, imho, irreplaceable on our budget. It's unbelievable we apparently had no succession plan in place.

His loss has weakened the midfield offensively, as we can no longer carry the ball forward at pace, and made us (even) more predictable - it's always going to go to Giles or Jones. (Thank goodness for Giles, who is an excellent signing). But the real horror show is the defensive impact. Howson, (who was only ever 'doing a job' as a DCM, isn't quick and is 34) and the defence are very exposed without Tav's lung busting recovery runs and general dynamism. This has been compounded by the signing of Clarke/Lenihan who are waaaay slower than Bola/Fry. Add in the selection of McNair ahead of Dijksteel and we look glacial in midfield and defence.

The trouble is, Bola is not a centre back and he obviously has doubts about Dijksteel defensively, so 3 at the back has to go until we have the players to make it work - either the dominant mobile DCM who could shore it up, or the dynamic box to boxer who could compensate. Realistically though, for top 6, we needed both of those. And we should know this already. With Tavernier still here, Howson was exposed against the better sides last year, and it was obvious (to me at least) we needed to sign a Boateng type to play there. Why haven't we made the key signings needed? In fairness to Wilder, he must be furious.

For me, it has to be 4-2-3-1 as this suits the players much better. I'd rather play 4-3-3, but lets be honest, the midfield isn't good enough for that.

---------------------------Steffen/Roberts---------------------

Dijksteel/Smith----Fry/Lenihan---Clarke/Lenihan------Bola

-----------------------Luongo-----Howson/Mowatt----

Jones------------------Crooks 60min/Watmore 30----------------Giles

------------------------------Muniz-------------------------------

If he does this, we'll stop shipping goals, which should be his absolute no.1 priority, or he will out of a job by Christmas.
 
Ravshoutsatbeck said:
My big change would be in midfield.

Instead of one holder and two wider central midfielders.

I'd go two deep and one as a link to two strikers.

Mcgree behind two strikers should help the press. But without leaving an aging howson to defend on his own.

Two wide dms also provides more obvious cover into the wide channels where we are getting destroyed.
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Spot on. It's so easy to score against us currently. As we have no pace or energy in midfield, we need a Leadbitter/Clayton approach.
 
I'd stop the love in with McGree. He is not good enough to play 10 and far too lightweight to play in midfield 3, or central 2.
He signed in January has played virtually every match and we have gone backwards. He even moved Tavernier to LWB to accommodate him.
 
We're not a rich club. We're not in a position to have a petulant manager. So the first thing I'd do is cut out the bullsh*t. Stuff like refusing to let Uche or Akpom train with the first team cause he wants them sold. Refusing to use the strikers the club have signed because we didn't get his first choice 35 year old from Newcastle. As manager he shouldn't just be thinking about the matches week by week. He needs to be working towards every player in our squad with a contract that goes beyond this season gaining in value. If he doesn't rate Forss or Hoppe it largely doesn't matter. They're our assets and from the moment they join we should be planning towards selling them at a profit. For that to happen they need to play.
 
sparkins said:
OK, so put yourself in Wilder's shoes. Given the current league position and with the squad of players at your disposal, what would you do to try and turn things around - especially given that the murmurs are getting louder?

Formation?
First choice XI?
Areas for individual improvement?
Self reflection?
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sparkins said:
OK, so put yourself in Wilder's shoes. Given the current league position and with the squad of players at your disposal, what would you do to try and turn things around - especially given that the murmurs are getting louder?

Formation?
First choice XI?
Areas for individual improvement?
Self reflection?
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Drop McNair & Mowett. Play two up front.
 
sparkins said:
OK, so put yourself in Wilder's shoes. Given the current league position and with the squad of players at your disposal, what would you do to try and turn things around - especially given that the murmurs are getting louder?


Well I wouldn’t have started from here.
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I think there are three possible formations plus a certain amount of going back to basics.
The most attacking one would be 3-4-1-2 with the central midfields sitting more deeply. The wingbacks start deeper and we play more on the counter. We lack pace in the middle of the field so we would largely be countering up the wing.

An alternative is 3-4-3 with Giles and Jones playing wide in a front 3 while Smith and Bola are more defensively minded. The problem with that is that we lack depth in various positions. It would be a decent formation for a pressing team.

Finally, you could look at 4-3-3 but again this lacks the pace in the middle of the field to make it work effectively.

I don't like 4-2-3-1 with this team because to make it work you need a stand-out #10 and we don't have one; al our creativity is in our wide players.

To me it seems like 3-4-1-2 two sitting midfielders works best. It needs to be compact and because it will be sitting deeper, playing out from the back might work ok providing the players know how to create the passing angles. That's what I would do. It's not a million miles from what we're already doing.
 

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————Roberts

——Dijksteel Fry Clarke/Bola

Jones Crooks Howson Giles

——Watmore Mcgree

————-Muniz
 
sparkins said:
Formation?
First choice XI?
Areas for individual improvement?
Self reflection?
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All formation have positives and negatives, that's the lazy answer. stick with 352, fans obsess over formation too much, as some silver bullet solution but it rarely is, you've still got XI on the pitch regardless how you line up, and if you don't have pace in certain areas, strength in other areas, and skill in other areas, its moot.

First choice XI: It's difficult because we will have some square pegs in round holes, and some obvious weaknesses, regardless who we pick. Saying that, personally:
- Dijksteel, we need to have his pace to protect against the counter and to also help with driving forward.
- We can't play 3 one paced midfielders. McGree has to drop in to an 8 position, his proper role
- Suck it up and play a proper forward tosupport Muniz, you can play them behind, but it has to be a proper foil for Muniz not a midfielder. Watmore has the workrate for an hour, then switch with Forss.
- Howson not a CDM, never was, never will be, switch it up
- Maybe Dale Stephens can sign and offer the shield to defend the counter, I don't know, maybe Luongo is better for that. My concern is too many new faces, not enough continuity. Last night we had 6 players in the side who joined this calendar year. They haven't jelled yet, so there is an argument to go back to basics, and add the newer players in 1 or 2 at a time. But we maybe haven't got enough long standing players to do that.

Individual improvement:
- We have to be better in the negative transition. We lose the ball we can't allow the other team an easy unchallenged job of moving up the field. I was given pelters for it last season, but I pointed out that yes, Connolly was bobbins in front of goal, but he was vital in applying pressure and slowing the counter down. You defend from the front, and we are not doing that. Tav was also important at that. Now we have McGree and Mowatt trying to do the same job and they can't.

- CBs need to work on moving teh ball quicker and coming out to be the extra man. Dijksteel is the only one to have any success at it.

- CM, be braver, try and break the lines more, but you are all experienced players, and if you can't do it now, you probably never will. So maybe McGree back in that position might work.

Self-reflection:
- thought we would be there or there abouts, but clearly I was wrong, we still have a long way to go, and this might be a longer journey than I thought.
 
Ravshoutsatbeck said:
My big change would be in midfield.

Instead of one holder and two wider central midfielders.
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that's a fair point, invert the midfield pyramid as they say, It's not like we are creating much in CM anyway, better to offer a bit more protection and let the wide players do their thing with a single 8 in the middle.
 
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