Formation

[Jimboefc97]

it did not work we were shocking

Did we get 3 points?

 

[toffeejack]

wouldn't be the worst idea to try it from the start vs spurs. They're a much better team away from home, where they can catch the attacking home team on the break with their pace. They struggle a tad, when teams come to WHL and don't really attack them. Think with this formation we would invite them onto us and hopefully pick them off and beat them at their own game.

Some people may say that's a tad negative, but if it gets the 3 points then who cares. However, inviting players like bale, vertonghan and dembele onto us may not be the greatest idea

 

[Blue Truth]

Did we get 3 points?

playing well and getting the points are not the same thing. one moment of brilliance and a bit of luck saved us

 

[Shinners17]

As someone succinctly put it, if we use that formation against Spurs, Bale and Lennon will rape us. I would go with the same personnel but in a 4-1-3-2 formation, Coleman, Jags, Distin, Baines across the back, Heitinga just in front, then Mirallas in the middle with Ossie on the one side and Gibbo on the other, then Vic and Jela up front.
When either Baines or Coleman inevitably make a run forward, Heitinga can drop back in as cover but when we're defending, he can go in front of the back 4 (like what Fellaini does) and IF he makes his inevitable mistake, at least it wont be fatal as Jags and Distin will have it covered...

 

[Ihaters]

Credit to Moyes btw, one of the first times I can remember where he hasnt gone with the 4-5-1 or 4-4-2.

3 up front, plan c, Barkley played.. today must of made some people on here literally implode with delirium.

 

[FTY]

I liked it. It gave us more options in attack and it gave us more numbers in defence. We lacked any presence in midfield but thats no different to previous weeks. Would work better with Fellaini but wouldn't suit Pienaar so we won't see it again after the Spurs game.

 

[billycopper]

As someone succinctly put it, if we use that formation against Spurs, Bale and Lennon will rape us. I would go with the same personnel but in a 4-1-3-2 formation, Coleman, Jags, Distin, Baines across the back, Heitinga just in front, then Mirallas in the middle with Ossie on the one side and Gibbo on the other, then Vic and Jela up front.
When either Baines or Coleman inevitably make a run forward, Heitinga can drop back in as cover but when we're defending, he can go in front of the back 4 (like what Fellaini does) and IF he makes his inevitable mistake, at least it wont be fatal as Jags and Distin will have it covered...

Wigan worked it to perfection against us. Early on Boyce and Beausejour pushed on to block Coleman and Baines from getting forward and then, once they had a lead to protect, they dropped in to form five at the back. We couldn't go round them, we couldn't play through them and they beat us to everything in the air. If we stuck to four at the back our fullbacks would still get forward as much and we'd have a defender less to step across and cover the channel.

I've been advocating we try this system for a while and it's interesting that Jagielka has said they've talked about using it for months. I'd probably put Heitinga in between Jagielka and Distin because he's the least positionally aware and I can see him getting caught out if he has the whole of the right side to defend. Whereas sandwiched between the other two he could bring the ball out of defence and join the midfield if needed.

 

[toffeeben15]

The problem with 5-3-2 is the full backs had no one to link up to as they had the whole wing to thier selfs . We should use a 4-1-3-2 formation to get a goal and then once we have a goal switch to 5-3-2 to protect the lead

 

[TheFinnFan]

How about 4-3-2-1
So called christmas tree formation. Finlands brilliant national team uses it xxx

 

[Blue Truth]

4231

howard
coleman jagielka distin baines
gibson fellaini
mirallas osman pienaar
jelavic

try to get honda in the summer and swap him in for osman

 

[Ihaters]

How about the highly adaptable 4-5-1 that has seen us do so well so often, then bring on a defender or striker or replacement midfielder as required later on?
Why change what works for something that most likely won't? We are well drilled in it, we know exactly what we are doing, why try to confuse our own players with a system we don't know before an important game?

 

[BigBlueConk]

If you play 3-5-2 and have a big hole in the middle of the park, then you are doing it wrong.

 

[bobafro]

I think that Wigan and City both using the system against us gave Moyes food for thought. We've got tough away games against Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea coming up and he possibly wanted to see how it suited us before we go in to those matches. It should be a good fit defensively, but we'll have to see if it hampers our attack. We should only need one midfield anchor if we're using three centrebacks, so the lineup might look like:

_______________Howard
_______Heitinga Jagielka Distin
Coleman___________________ Baines
_______________Gibson
________Mirallas Fellaini Pienaar
_______________Jelavic

Took the words out of my mouth... would love to see us play this formation and team... with Fellaini ready to drop back and help Gibbo if needed.

Coleman and Baines need player that can drift out wide in front of them and come back in dragging players... they are excellent at exploiting the space created when pienaar/mirallas do this.

They looked a bit isolated against stoke and I think this was down to our attach being very narrow.

Maybe with more experience playing the formation the wing-backs might time their runs depending on which side Mirallas has drifted to...