Short memories... Fellaini needs to be in the middle of the park.

[Allezfan]

I've said it before but there's a big difference between being destructive and being defensive.

Fellaini in his deep role would be playing in the area of the pitch Osman is not where Neville/Gibson do.

 

[Allezfan]

Gibson has played 70 minutes or more in four games this season and there's only one where we haven't conceded.

1-1s against arsenal and city, a 1-0 against utd and a 3-1 against villa. That's not a terrible defensive record in context.

It's not 'letting in two goals against fulham and newcatsle despite them only touching the ball three times' bad.

 

[tim cahill]

My main problems with this theory is that Fellaini has been our best player this season where he is playing and Osman has been one of our best players this season where he is playing. To move 2 players into different positions when they are both in such good form just seems daft to me.

I think the main reason for Jelavic's lack of goals is that Pienaar has been out of form, Mirallas has been injured and Jelavic himself is out of form. It happens.

 

[Brownie]

The obvious solution is not to get players from the SPL.

 

[EFCNIK]

The obvious solution is not to get players from the SPL.

Haha! Is right BubububububububububububuROwnZ

 

[bluebottle]

The obvious solution is not to get players from the SPL.

That should be rule number one in every manager's transfer handbook.

 

[20toffees]

i think depending on what happens in january we could see a little shake up in how we send out the first eleven. will either bring someone who will have a felli like presence in the middle or someone to play behind jelly so that we can move felli back. i wouldnt mind trying mirallas behind jelly either. i think january transfer market is going to be a good one. moyes not signing a contract has put pressure on BK to spend to keep him.

 

[paulbefc]

You're comparing games with Gibson out injured and coleman (who I like a lot but is defensively naive) at RB though.

If now Hibbert and Gibson are back and Heitinga isn't playing we keep on leaking goals than fair enough but you might be trying to fix a problem that has already been solved.

Yep. When Hibbert and Gibson were playing and Felli was behind Jelavic, we kept a lot of clean sheets towards the end of last season, with only one blip, which to be fair, came at OT against a title chasing United. We also scored a lot of goals with back to back 4s at OT and against Fulham with Jelavic being the main source. The current system can, is (to an extent) and has worked to great effect.

Fellaini doesn't score as many goals from DM. I think he'd scored maybe one or two last season before moving the CAM where he proceeded to score a lot more. The last time he reached high numbers for a season was in his first, where he was played predominantly, yep, you guessed it, behind the striker. I think the defence probably would be protected better with Felli in front of the back four, but now we have Gibson and Hibbert back, there's less need to shuffle the pack. Certainly there's no need to take our biggest attacking threat out of the front two.

 

[njligernj]

Fellaini doesn't score as many goals from DM. I think he'd scored maybe one or two last season before moving the CAM where he proceeded to score a lot more. The last time he reached high numbers for a season was in his first, where he was played predominantly, yep, you guessed it, behind the striker. I think the defence probably would be protected better with Felli in front of the back four, but now we have Gibson and Hibbert back, there's less need to shuffle the pack. Certainly there's no need to take our biggest attacking threat out of the front two.

Agreed. FWIW (nothing) I would keep Fellaini up front for a few games and see if Gibson & Hibbo (although I'd play Coleman v. some sides) can settle things down defensively. Meanwhile hopefully a returning to form Pienaar and a returning to fitness Mirallas can supply our striker with a few more chances for him to slot home with one touch.

I know we've had too many draws for all of our liking however a little perspective: aside from City there is no team which has lost less games than we have. Obviously you don't want to draw every single game and have zero losses -- you need to win -- but my point is that we aren't that far away and might not need that much of a shake-up.

 

[Brennan]

I think saying keep Fellaini up top but bring Hibbert back at RB undermines just how important it is to have solid attacking options on both flanks in this day and age. The right hand side has always been a lot weaker than our left on the attack, i'd hate to see Coleman benched just so we could keep Felli at CAM tbh.

 

[Allezfan]

Do you think Coleman offers us more in an attacking sense than Fellaini?

 

[tim cahill]

I think saying keep Fellaini up top but bring Hibbert back at RB undermines just how important it is to have solid attacking options on both flanks in this day and age. The right hand side has always been a lot weaker than our left on the attack, i'd hate to see Coleman benched just so we could keep Felli at CAM tbh.

If Coleman is benched it'll be because he's a bit of a liability defensively, it will have nothing to do with Fellaini.

 

[Brennan]

Do you think Coleman offers us more in an attacking sense than Fellaini?

I think overall i'd rather we had attacking fullbacks on both wings with Fellaini at CM than have Fellaini behind the striker and Hibbert playing every game.

 

[Allezfan]

I think overall i'd rather we had attacking fullbacks on both wings with Fellaini at CM than have Fellaini behind the striker and Hibbert playing every game.

I mean I'd play both Coleman and Fellaini up top, myself. But I'd be happy to see us play like we did against Fulham and Newcastle every day and that seems to be the kind of perfomances people are trying to move away from, where we're all out attacking but completely porous at the back and so don't win.

 

[evertony]

So the solution to our recent run of not winning games is to move our most in-form player and top scorer to a different position... eh?

Also, haven't we had the most shots on target in the league? It's not the fact Fellaini is playing up top that has caused us to miss chances. Our defence is the area that needs to be looked at, 1 clean sheet since 1st day of the season.

Simply this....