Matt Lowton signs

[DrGonzo]

"An attacking wing back..."  3-5-2???  Mmmmmm Brian Little revisited.

Leap of logic there. Consider that the three would be Dunne, Collins and a kid. 0-2 down after 20 minutes in every game was the way Derby approached the FAPL.

I think we all believe that at least one CB will be in the list of targets this summer.  So that is a little irrelevant.  4-4-2 is dead, 4-5-1 is the norm nowadays.  Rodgers at Swansea last season showed that a back 3 can still be competitive and I'm fairly sure that Lambert used the system on occasion last year too.

[paul_e]

He did indeed, but not with wing-backs, I doubt we'll see a strict 532 again as we used in the 90s.

The current trend with 3 defenders is 3232 or 32311.  Generally with at least 1 of the 3 being a specialist fullback and the 2 in front both playing central.

It gives a much more fluid setup as the left and right defenders can drift out and are replaced centrally by one of the defensive midfielders if they're attacked out wide or they form a 3 and a 2 when attacked centrally, which just closes out the space.

For it to work you need all the players to be pretty clued up and you're very reliant on having hard working widemen.  We'd really need a centre back who was happy drifting to right back for us to try it (I'd be more than happy with Baker in the left sided role and Clark could play there if I didn't want him elsewhere...), but as 1-2 centre backs are on most peoples list of wants for this summer we'd be looking a new guy for that role anyway.  Clark would be fantastic in one of the defensive midfield spots and ireland would work well in the central role as he'd have 2 guys in with him so he could roam and still have people aead and out wide to work the ball to.

              Given
{new cb/rb} - {new cb} - baker
           el ahmadi -  clark
albie(lowton)   -  ireland  -  holman
       {new st} - bent

The main advantage is if it's not working it's easy to go 442 by dropping clark in and pushing el ahmadi forward a little, and 1 sub allows 451, 433, 343 etc.  I like the idea of being really flexible.

[paulcomben]

"An attacking wing back..."  3-5-2???  Mmmmmm Brian Little revisited.

Leap of logic there. Consider that the three would be Dunne, Collins and a kid. 0-2 down after 20 minutes in every game was the way Derby approached the FAPL.

I think we all believe that at least one CB will be in the list of targets this summer.  So that is a little irrelevant.  4-4-2 is dead, 4-5-1 is the norm nowadays.  Rodgers at Swansea last season showed that a back 3 can still be competitive and I'm fairly sure that Lambert used the system on occasion last year too.
.

I stand corrected. Dunne, Collins and someone settling in to the team. 0-3 down after 15 minutes. And those other numbers forget to mention that the dominant national team will lead coaches to play 4-6-0