This is a real conundrum if you ask me, because unless something changes, when the asia cup is over for Australia, we're either going to have our top goalscorer on the bench, or we're going to revert back to the formation that's left us quite toothless this season.
Both seem like crappy options to me, really. Cahill's an asset anywhere, if only for set pieces, but 4-5-1 just hasn't cut it this season. Cahill isn't good enough to play CM, he'd offer us nothing on the right, and no matter what anyone says he isn't an out and out striker. You can play him in a 4-4-2, but it's not the same as when you play say, Beckford and Saha, because he doesn't offer the pace of the former, or the ability to strike from 25 yards, like the latter. He doesn't compliment Saha or Beckford in a 4-4-2, and they don't compliment him.
Now I guess you could play 4-5-1 some games, 4-4-2 others, or even switch it up after half time in a game. But to me 4-5-1 is redundant now, and the only convincing wins it's brought us this season have been against opposition who've made it quite easy for us; 2-0 brum (own goal for our first), 2-0 RS (the worst Liverpool derby performance in my lifetime). The other wins have been very scrappy affairs, and there hasn't been many of them.
So I've been thinking, and really, the only potential idea I've come up with is to play Cahill at LM. Before you start calling me a gluesniffing titrash, hear me out. Pienaar's obviously off, so we need a replacement. The main thing we need to replace is having someone to work with Baines and feed him on the overlap. Contrary to what many think, Cahill has great ball retention and is fantastic at little 1-2s, backheels and smart through balls. Just like Pienaar. I know you're not going to get the best out of Cahill there, but I think he'd be as good as Osman on the left, possibly better, and that's who'll probably be playing there when Pienaar leaves (seeing as we have no cash). And so long as Cahill's on the pitch, he'll be able to get in the box for set pieces, and that's where he gets most of his goals anyway.
Now, there's probably a lot of problems with my idea, and I might get laughed at, but the point of this thread really is to probe a problem that would have seemed inconceivable just 2 weeks ago; how do we fit Tim Cahill into the team?
