Playing without a target man

[blue61]

Calvert Lewin would be in the central position every game for me, with the others playing off him. He's the only one with the legs and energy required to do the job, and the attack looks more balanced. The sooner Koeman stops titting about with him on the wing the better.

 

[Efcjake]

I assume this is possible?!

Liverpool seem to do it well

Do we just not have the personal required?

Yeah it is definitely possible, but more than a little strange when you do so after signing arguably one of the most effective players to support a target man who gets most of his assists from corners and free kicks being placed on someone's bonce.

 

[Lapeno77]

Lot of similarities to the Moyes 04/05 side with DCL fulfilling the Marcus Bent role.

 

[COYBL25]

Lot of similarities to the Moyes 04/05 side with DCL fulfilling the Marcus Bent role.

I think DCL is a better footballer already tbh, just needs more confidence and game time to develop.

 

[billyblue80]

Calvert Lewin would be in the central position every game for me, with the others playing off him. He's the only one with the legs and energy required to do the job, and the attack looks more balanced. The sooner Koeman stops titting about with him on the wing the better.

Every game?

 

[Joey66]

Lot of similarities to the Moyes 04/05 side with DCL fulfilling the Marcus Bent role.

marcus bent had tremedous pace - had a great season that year the team formation just clicked- Lee carsley being the ace in the pack!

 

[TheBigIguana]

We have to be able to move the ball through midfield. The target man is the easy way out. Our problem imo is that the defenders can't pass effectively enough to ever get the midfield in positions to get it forward

 

[COYBL25]

marcus bent had tremedous pace - had a great season that year the team formation just clicked- Lee carsley being the ace in the pack!

The poor mans Makelele, who I believe is an assistant coach at Swansea these days

 

[PITA]

You certainly can play without a target man. There's plenty of people who would rather we did I think, but I'm not sure we have the players to do it.

Most of our defenders aren't comfortable on the ball, so they end up playing quite a lot of long balls when under pressure. Without a target man that's going to mean the ball just comes straight back. Sigurdsson's strength is crossing the ball, and Klaassen's appears to be getting ahead of the striker into the box. Neither of which are massively useful without a striker playing with their back to goal. We also lack players who can pick passes from midfield, so if Sandro is going to play centrally I'm not sure who's going to be playing him in.

I think we'll be asking DCL to step up big time this year.

To be fair, we had a target man last season and this still happened.

 

[Lanolin]

To be fair, we had a target man last season and this still happened.

I wouldn't say Lukaku was a target man. We may have tried to use him as one, but that's a different story.

 

[Osamabindiesel]

We have talent, but the board did a terrible job balancing the side. DCL will have to take the majority of minutes of top because he is the closest we have to a target man. Will we play with actual wingers now that Rooney is potentially in trouble? I think that will solve plenty of problems, and once Coleman comes back, we should start climbing the table yet again. Interested to see how heavily Vlasic features this season because he can press like Koeman wants from his players.

 

[PITA]

I wouldn't say Lukaku was a target man. We may have tried to use him as one, but that's a different story.

I think we agree on this.

 

[DanB90]

The poor mans Makelele, who I believe is an assistant coach at Swansea these days

Just got a job in the England set-up hasn't he?
Or are you talking about Makelelele?

 

[COYBL25]

Just got a job in the England set-up hasn't he?
Or are you talking about Makelelele?

Makelele mate

 

[rochdaleblue]

The RS and city don't play with a target man and yet they score goals freely. The difference is....they have an ambulance of pace in attacking positions we do not. However when you've just spent 45m on allegedly the best dead ball specialist in the league and then don't sign a target man to utilise these strengths, it's hard to understand. Likewise the RS boulght a target man in Benteke but didn't supply him with the ammunition.