Tactics

[eastie]

at least Delph is involved, and keeps showing up for the ball,
 i have seen players like N'Zog who might have well not been on the pitch, when you are going through a bad time he's the last player you can rely on, he goes missing. quite frankly i havent seen him have one decent game yet, and for the most part has been rubbish, he is not the answer

Albrighton was far worse than Delph yesterday, cant beieve he remained on the pitch till the end

Nzogbia will be out for a few weeks anyway, with dunne out till Xmas at least,  baker another few weeks also , it's looking a bit of a threadbare squad with a huge lack of quality and experience.

[john e]

at least Delph is involved, and keeps showing up for the ball,
 i have seen players like N'Zog who might have well not been on the pitch, when you are going through a bad time he's the last player you can rely on, he goes missing. quite frankly i havent seen him have one decent game yet, and for the most part has been rubbish, he is not the answer

Albrighton was far worse than Delph yesterday, cant beieve he remained on the pitch till the end

Nzogbia will be out for a few weeks anyway, with dunne out till Xmas at least,  baker another few weeks also , it's looking a bit of a threadbare squad with a huge lack of quality and experience.

oh yeah, forgot he was injured, no loss in my view

[brian green]

The failure of Marc Albrighton to become the player we expected him to be is little short of tragic.   The last one to fall as fast and as far was Stefan Moore.

[silhillvilla]

Please describe it as 442 diamond. Ie very very narrow. Which means we have zero attacking width and no cover / protection for two young fragile full backs .
It's obvious from the stands but Lambert worryingly can't see it.

[dalians umbrella]

I would try:


                                                                       GUZAN


                LOWTON                          VLAAR                     BAKER                        BENNETT


                                                      HERD                    EL-AHMADI / CLARKE


            N'ZOGBIA                                          HOLMAN                                         GABBY


                                                                     BENTEKE


If N'zogbia is injured, I'd either replace him with Carruther or put Holman wide and put Ireland behind Benteke.

[eastie]

                       Guzan

Lowton.      Clark.      Vlaar.       Baker

            Herd.     El ahmedi. 

    Carruthers.       Weimann.        Nzogbia

                          Benteke

When all fit that would be the team I'd go with.

[Holte L2]

at least Delph is involved, and keeps showing up for the ball,
 i have seen players like N'Zog who might have well not been on the pitch, when you are going through a bad time he's the last player you can rely on, he goes missing. quite frankly i havent seen him have one decent game yet, and for the most part has been rubbish, he is not the answer

Albrighton was far worse than Delph yesterday, cant beieve he remained on the pitch till the end

Delph is a booking waiting to happen. At times he has the right idea,but is far too sloppy at times. N'zogbia was excellent against Man City and IMO warranted a start against Albion.

[ez]

What happened to the passing/possession game we were playing earlier in the season? That looked like it was coming together and now its been abandoned.

[Monty]

What happened to the passing/possession game we were playing earlier in the season? That looked like it was coming together and now its been abandoned.

It's simple, to me anyway: Bannan, Ireland and KEA created a little axis together where they could move the ball at varying speeds, and where each one was on the others' wavelength. KEA looked isolated yesterday, as if he didn't trust any of the midfield around him, and we had no tempo to our passing - it was sluggish, crab-like and innocuous. Football is a team game, and for me those three playing give us the best team.

[brian green]

For all his baggage Ireland is the only genuinely creative player we have.   For me he has to be in the starting line up

[Holte L2]

For all his baggage Ireland is the only genuinely creative player we have.   For me he has to be in the starting line up

Why, what has he created since the Chelsea game?

[Apyadg]

Agreed, it's really odd that he hasn't been getting a few more games.

With him, Bent and CNZ barely getting a sniff, it makes me wonder if the wage bill is still a target and Lambert's already been told to get rid.

[supertom]

Why have the last few managers all tried using Delph as a deep lying midfielder? He's just not. His tackling is poor. He was an attacking midfielder at Leeds. For me we need to play him (if we do play him) as a more advanced midfielder. He's only shown it briefly this season but he's quite good when he makes bursting runs. He's got a turn of pace and we should be using that. Either we give him more freedom by sitting Herd behind him and KEA, or play Delph on the left. Delph has a decent shot on him from distance but he never gots forward enough to use it.

The problem too is that he and KEA are too similar. Their tidy on the ball, keep it well enough but they won't pick that penetrating pass. Neither is a defesnive mid either, both too clumsy in the tackle. I just think playing the two together gets us nowhere. They read each other well actually, but because they offer more or less the same, there's no reason to have both.

I thought Herd played quite well yesterday and earned himself another game. Hopefully he'll be able to switch back to midfield. I'd sit him as the anchor with KEA/Delph and Bannan/Ireland in CM.

And enough of the 4-4-2. Not working.

[PaulWinch again]

For all his baggage Ireland is the only genuinely creative player we have.   For me he has to be in the starting line up

Completely agree and I'm not sure why he's been dropped, he's looked pretty good this season. The fact that Delph has been consistently useless and plays is utter madness.

[supertom]

For all his baggage Ireland is the only genuinely creative player we have.   For me he has to be in the starting line up

Why, what has he created since the Chelsea game?

My view too. We can't afford to have players who drift in and out of games. For that reason three of our most expensive assets, Bent, N'Zogbia and Ireland are struggling to start regularly. Ireland even at his best last season still to me, never had a decent 90 minutes. We really can't afford that. N'Zogbia is a ghost sometimes. For all Irelands technical ability I've never seen him dictate a game. I was one hoping he could be our new Merse, but he's nowhere near (aside from the questionable party lifestyle).

Even if we could get the best out of all of them you couldn't get away with playing all three. We'd get ripped apart (more so than usual).