The first 11

[Papa Shango]

I hate all of them. Was going to sit down and have a crack at my own team but then thought sod it as they make me angry.

I would find a space in the squad for our most potent striker though...

 

[ah11984]

You can put any personnel you like, in any fancy formation you wish, and you'll get the same outcome.. a bang average, mediocre starting XI.

 

[Eggs]

From the 1st eleven i listed above, are there any other players you think should be in that team?

Also, with the two CMs out who would you play?




Sidibe was looking good in 2016/17 but since then im not sure if hes been great.

The rest of the first 11 has seen signings as replacements aside from Pickford/Keane/Coleman

Its a process and i think were still yet to see 4 or 5 more signings to complete the initial squad rebuild.

....I have no doubt Gbamin is key to how Silva wants his team to play, but the loss of Gomes means we have no creativity in CM. Schneiderlin and Delph provide little going forward and we still look defensively vulnerable.

I’m not sure we have another creative CM but we need creativity in there. Davies can’t do any worst, but a temporary solution might be the way to go. It looked like Sigurdsson dropped deeper to play alongside Delph (when Schneiderlin went off).

Not sure what the answer is, but I have had concerns about central defence all season, perhaps Delph playing as a disciplined shield in front of the CBs and creativity ahead of him.

 

[Zatara]

I'm tired of the same formation and luckily we don't have 3 attacking midfield/wingers that deserve to start at this point so we can easily drop one out and not miss someone who is performing well. I also see no reason to subject ourselves to 20 more misplaced crosses from Seamus so I'm hoping we see Sidibe given a shot.

Anyway I'd go for this:

Pickford
Sidibe Keane MIna Digne
Schneiderlin
Gomes Delph
Richarlison Kean Iwobi
​

Once Gbamin gets back he can maybe replace Schneiderlin but I honestly believe that set up might suit Morgan enough to keep him around. Hard to say really. Maybe Gylfi can prove useful in the spots Delph and Gomes are at but I doubt it. The key though is to get the wingers working inside some so that we can actually attack with something other than crosses from time to time. I doubt we will ever see this.

Will be interesting to see Sidibe against Wednesday.

Im confused why youve included Schneiderlin rather than Gbamin, if its a first choice 11 (as you included the injured Gomes)?

Personally would rather see Baningime around the first team than Schneiderlin.

 

[TheBigIguana]

i would have started both dcl and kean today dropped sig back into cm with delph, brands and silva must take the blame with players available the defence needs to addressed solva sets the team up for defending corners ect i do blame brands for the lack of options at cb. Also we need different options at cm as all are players are too similar.

Sigurdsson did drop back with Delph and in my opinion that worked terribly.

 

[RomanReigns]

The first 11 is absolutely pointless if you play a stupid system and the players don’t know their roles

Even messi and Ronaldo in this team would struggle because there is no structure

I’ve been saying it for a while even after we beat wolves and Watford that 4231 is a dead formation

 

[TheBigIguana]

Will be interesting to see Sidibe against Wednesday.

Im confused why youve included Schneiderlin rather than Gbamin, if its a first choice 11 (as you included the injured Gomes)?

Personally would rather see Baningime around the first team than Schneiderlin.

If you are playing that position the deep midfielder needs to be able to quickly move the ball from left to right and I believe Schneiderlin is better at that. I know everyone hates him but I think he does a lot of decent work in games when we have a lot of the ball. The players out wide and up top let us down today but the ball got down there more than enough and that is what Morgan's job is.

 

[messymascot]

I think we need to decide which 2 RBs we want to keep out of Kenny, Coleman and Sidibe. After that we need 6 more players in which is a CB, LB, DM, 2 WG, ST. 3 of them need to be starters and 3 need to be pushing players in there position. Of the current 1st team squad I would get rid of Schneiderlin, Tosun, Walcott, Baines and Stekelenburg.

 

[Papa Shango]

The first 11 is absolutely pointless if you play a stupid system and the players don’t know their roles

Even messi and Ronaldo in this team would struggle because there is no structure

I’ve been saying it for a while even after we beat wolves and Watford that 4231 is a dead formation

It certainly is the way we play it.

There are some major basics that our squad is not doing. Schoolboy stuff and it is affecting us badly.

• Pass the ball for a player to move on to so he doesn't have to break stride.
• Play the ball to your team mates strongest side if possible.
• Keep moving and make yourself available for the pass.
• Make yourself available inside the area or just on the edge of the box. Pull away from your man, near post, far post etc.
• Use the whole bloody pitch

I don't get how a top flight team can not do basics like this. All we do is move up the touchlines like a glacier and then hit a cross in to nobody or win a corner which we then hump straight onto the head of their best header of the ball every single time.

Honestly it's pathetic. We rely on a bit of magic from Sigurdsson, Digne or Richarlison and have nothing beyond that. It is not sustainable.

 

[Zatara]

i would have started both dcl and kean today dropped sig back into cm with delph, brands and silva must take the blame with players available the defence needs to addressed solva sets the team up for defending corners ect i do blame brands for the lack of options at cb. Also we need different options at cm as all are players are too similar.

....I have no doubt Gbamin is key to how Silva wants his team to play, but the loss of Gomes means we have no creativity in CM. Schneiderlin and Delph provide little going forward and we still look defensively vulnerable.

I’m not sure we have another creative CM but we need creativity in there. Davies can’t do any worst, but a temporary solution might be the way to go. It looked like Sigurdsson dropped deeper to play alongside Delph (when Schneiderlin went off).

Not sure what the answer is, but I have had concerns about central defence all season, perhaps Delph playing as a disciplined shield in front of the CBs and creativity ahead of him.

Sigurdsson did drop back with Delph and in my opinion that worked terribly.

I cant see Sigurdsson as anything other than the position he plays in. I dont think he can be effective least of all without a passer behind him to link with.

Aside from Gbamin/Gomes in the centre as a two, or even Delph slotting in to make it a 3....theres no one in the squad I can see starting and making a real difference over the season.

For me, we cant change the formation due to the lack of quality, variety in the midfield.

@Eggs Aside from Gbamin do you think we need another athletic player in there? I think Doucoure was a big miss if we were going to be able to play 433 and also if we were planning on injuries/suspensions we should have landed another DM of the same size as Gbamin.

It looks really weak to me.

The first 11 is absolutely pointless if you play a stupid system and the players don’t know their roles

Even messi and Ronaldo in this team would struggle because there is no structure

I’ve been saying it for a while even after we beat wolves and Watford that 4231 is a dead formation

I cant see any other system we can play without more incomings in the centre.

Still need another summer i think to achieve quality in the 11 and depth.

 

[Papa Shango]

I think we need to decide which 2 RBs we want to keep out of Kenny, Coleman and Sidibe. After that we need 6 more players in which is a CB, LB, DM, 2 WG, ST. 3 of them need to be starters and 3 need to be pushing players in there position. Of the current 1st team squad I would get rid of Schneiderlin, Tosun, Walcott, Baines and Stekelenburg.

Baines, Stek, Tosun and to an extent Walcott barely play though. It would free up some space (to buy other losers no doubt) but it doesn't solve whats happening on the pitch right now either as they are not really part of the problem.

 

[Deleted member 38674]

Ive seen a huge number of posts slating Silva / Brands / Moshiri tonight.

Heres my take on the first 11 based on Brands/Silva signings when all are fit;

Pickford
Coleman Keane Mina Digne
Gbamin Gomes
Iwobi
Richarlison Kean Bernard
​

Some questions:

1 -- Which of our other squad players should be in that first 11? The only one i can think of is Sidibe but weve not seen enough of him yet.

2 -- We have both of our centre midfielders out, how many teams outside of the top 6 can cope with that?

3 -- Which of our squad players can come on and make an impact off the bench?

4 -- Alot of posts about not attacking through the middle. Is that not because we have a weak centre midfield without the two first choice players?


I know its boring, and its like playing a song on repeat but the fact is that were only two summers into the new regime and have shifted and brought in a huge number of players so far.

It seems to be a gradual process to me and by my calculations we only spent around £30mil in the summer.

There are still a number of players on the books who need to be shifted (even those currently on loan) and were yet to see the results of the rebuild.

Ive thought since last summer that 2020/2021 is the season that i think things will start taking shape as thats when we will see the results of 3 summers rebuild -- which i think most of us agreed was required when Brands came in.

Im not sure how many more players Brands could have signed/sold (hes done a huge amount already) or what tactics Silva could change with the players fit on a weekly basis (no quality depth).

I think we just need to be patient and trust the process.

Gbamin looked tosh before he got injured. Admittedly it’s early days but I wouldn’t go resting my hopes on him being an equivalent to Gueye.

Gomes has been garbage all season, bar maybe Wolves. A bit of time on the sidelines can’t hurt him.

The best managers, even just “good” managers, create an effective system around their personnel and get a tune out of far worse players than ours. Silva takes the responsibility and it should* cost him his job. But it won’t.

The club say one thing and do another. All mouth and no trousers. Any club with real ambitions would have turfed this clown out long ago. Any club with real ambitions would have appointed a manager with genuine credentials and a more impressive CV than “made Watford look good for a bit” and “got relegated with Hull but beat Liverpool”.

He was underqualified to begin with and he’s proven to be just that. A club with real ambitions, we are not. I’m angry with MS but only to a point. He’s been given a task beyond his means.

 

[andy4efc]

...he has his detractors, which is understandable but dropping DCL for Kean didn’t make much difference today. Perhaps DCL is an option in your starting X1.

Depends on the game mate. Today was always going to be a bus parked. With the amount of crossing opportunities we were getting, we would have been better with DCL being on.

why he brought on Walcott was comical.

 

[messymascot]

Baines, Stek, Tosun and to an extent Walcott barely play though. It would free up some space (to buy other losers no doubt) but it doesn't solve whats happening on the pitch right now either as they are not really part of the problem.

I appreciate they don't play but if there wages were off the bill we could maybe bring in a striker who scores and get another creative player in the team. Also buy a centre back to put the pressure on the 2 who currently know they will play every game barring injury. Between now and the transfer window I think it's going to be bleak.

 

[Jonte]

Pretty much a Hobson’s choice with this bunch, but definitely not Davies.

Holgate to replace Keane who I believe is mentally vulnerable at present.

Ultimate solution: 4-4-2 until we steady the ship.

Will this happen: not in a million; not with someone at the helm who only maintains his position because we’ve an owner who is too embarrassed to admit he got it wrong, again.