http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/spo...-five-man-defence-for-everton-clash-1-6551815
looks like poyet gonna stick with five man defence, will be interesting to see what martinez does against this, thoughts?
The important thing will be combating their width, which if managed will kill off their threat because they have nothing through the centre to trouble any half-serious defensive setup. I think Poyet is basically surrendering, in desperation, trying to fundamentally change the way Sunderland play (wasn't working) and just play to their strengths, keep a very solid and compact centre to compensate for their lack of pace (particularly in defence) and allow the wingbacks to bomb on and whip the balls in. Johnson upfront is interesting, not sure how he fares up there but he has pace, trickery and is certainly an outlet, will have to be wary of him on the counter. Other than that a 3-man midfield of Ki, Cattermole and Bridcutt (the 3 that played v Spurs) actually seems a decent trio on paper. They're all capable in possession but other than Ki I don't think you'll get any creativity. And then next to Adam Johnson there's Borini, who is a poacher.
I think he'll use roughly the same approach as against Arsenal. Get Lukaku buzzing around the uncertainty between the 3 centre halves and their fullback, see if he can drag them about a bit. Have Naismith linking up just frustrating those 3 by not really giving them a direct challenge; they might be able to repel a traditional strikeforce better with 3, but Naismith won't play like that at all, he will draw them in only to move the ball on, he wont challenge them directly, just pull them out of position enough for others to take advantage. Think he'll keep McCarthy back to deal with Johnson and have Barry pushing further forward to try and dominate the centre given our numerical advantage. Barkley will be key.
