The Wall - stick or twist?

[Toffe3m4n]

Personally I think 352 should be the way forward now Iwobi has looked settled as a RWB and Richarlison is looking useless not being in the centre

Olsen
Keane Mina Godfrey
Iwobi Allan Doucoure Digne
James
DCL Richarlison

Think that side brings out the best in a few players.

I do like this team. If Richarlison's form improved we'd be flying with this.

 

[Efctrueblue]

Godfrey Mina Keane Digne

 

[D410]

Attacking Midfieder

 

[degsy]

Other
RB; Holgate. CBs; Keane, Mina. LB; Godfrey.

 

[Tipp blue]

The sky 6 and Leicester have the ability to break it down every other team will struggle against it. Stick Allan infront and it becomes harder still.

 

[Tramps_mate]

I like the wall!!

 

[Blue Sky]

Well it's a great base Hogate , Mina , Kean & Godfrey and I like it but I hate the fact we don't do anything else , Iwobi on a lot earlier last night or somebody else that can run and take people on like err err and that's the problem , why can't we find a Mount , Maddison , Barnes etc . Chelsea seem to have a few extras not that they will sell so look abroad , we need some fast attacking midfielders .

 

[Lanolin]

I think we'd go up a level with a quality, ball-playing CM to help in the transition. With the likes of Dom, James, Richarlison, Iwobi and even Digne we do have some good players there who operate in the opponents half and stretch the play - we just need a tidy player in the middle to tie it together.

With this, we can stick with 'The Wall' and hopefully be able to maintain the good defensive record in tandem with some better transitional play.

The thing is though, people are massively oversimplifying it, as if it's just the fact that we're playing 4 centre backs which is making us tough to break down. It's not though, it's the fact that we're defending deep, getting a lot of men behind the ball, happy to give up possession and just sit in, asking our wide players to play as auxillary full backs at times etc. The entire team is doing it's bit to restrict the space the opposition get to work in when they come forward. It's possible that if we try to become more attacking then the old defensive issues will resurface again, and the lack of mobility of the centre halves and fact that the full backs aren't naturals there will become a big problem. It's a definite quandary.

 

[Tipp blue]

To really have a wall we need a top class Keeper, no point in having a wall if you leave the gate open.
Last night was a routine save perhaps he saw it late with the amount of players in front of him, in my opinion he got his position and angles wrong and thought he was doing enough to knock it out for a corner.
We can't continue with him in the team sell him 10 million and replace him by Monday a delay now has the potential to cost us big time.. we are in a position where we can mount a serious challenge for top 4 only a couple of points off with games in hand.. it would be such a pity if goalkeeping errors cost us.

 

[BlueToff]

DIgne would've had an assist if DCL didn't miss that sitter too.

'The Wall' works against the teams with free-flowing attack, but invites a lot of pressure onto us too and that can be hard to sustain over a long period. I think whenever he's fit, Digne has to play LB. I really like Godfrey and his promise, but he's not a LB and has very little attacking impetus.

Just depends on the game for me mate, for now at least.

For example, Leeds away, I'd go with Digne left mid and Godfrey left-back. Target them on the counter but we just have to make sure we retain the threat up top. Both DCL and Richarlison really struggled to hold the ball up yesterday and it cost us territory. It's an area of Iwobi's game that has really improved in recent weeks and really helped us against Wolves, for example.

But yeah, against Newcastle I'd have Digne in at left-back and long term he's obviously a left-back, but until he's fully firing don't see an issue in playing him left mid in certain matches.

 

[barneygumble]

Personally I think 352 should be the way forward now Iwobi has looked settled as a RWB and Richarlison is looking useless not being in the centre

Olsen
Keane Mina Godfrey
Iwobi Allan Doucoure Digne
James
DCL Richarlison

Think that side brings out the best in a few players.

This all day for me.

3 very, very solid centre halves allows for Iwobi and Digne to get forward.

That there is our best team on paper btw.

 

[BlueToff]

This with tubular bells on.

Really can't get my head around how you can look at how we played in a back three earlier in the season and want it back?

Mina and Keane do not work in a back three. It just becomes a back five because of their lack of pace. We also have no left-footed CB to add balance there.

It might work for spells, but it's not sustainable, and also exposes our midfield.

 

[BlueToff]

This all day for me.

3 very, very solid centre halves allows for Iwobi and Digne to get forward.

That there is our best team on paper btw.

Footy isn't played on paper.

We just don't play with a back three well. There's no balance.

Against certain teams or in certain moments, yes, but Mina and Keane do not work together in a back three. Both can only play in the centre of the three so would have to be Holgate and Godfrey either side. Also puts a lot of onus on Allan and Doucoure.

Have we all just forgotten how bad we were in a back three, bar about 15 minutes against Fulham?

 

[BlueToff]

The thing is though, people are massively oversimplifying it, as if it's just the fact that we're playing 4 centre backs which is making us tough to break down. It's not though, it's the fact that we're defending deep, getting a lot of men behind the ball, happy to give up possession and just sit in, asking our wide players to play as auxillary full backs at times etc. The entire team is doing it's bit to restrict the space the opposition get to work in when they come forward. It's possible that if we try to become more attacking then the old defensive issues will resurface again, and the lack of mobility of the centre halves and fact that the full backs aren't naturals there will become a big problem. It's a definite quandary.

It's what people are ignoring when they're saying how bad Richarlison has been too.

He hasn't been great, but since the start of December he's been playing pretty much as a left back or, last night, a right-back.

As you say, it's a quandary at the moment. But I trust Carlo to get it right.

I'm gonna have a proper look through the second-half stats today. Honestly, it's a real issue for us. We just simply do not get onto the front foot enough in the second half of matches.

And look at the times we finally did last night - we had two of the best chances in the game, and failed to take them, and Leicester were on the back foot.

 

[riddick]

Having 4 CB's in there means we have 0 attacking threat from our FB positions. There was a spot yesterday Godfrey had the ball, if he had any attacking threat he could have walked right in to the box because Leicester players went to the middle and to the left and opened a massive hole. Godfrey stopped and passed it back to Digne instead of trying to get forward.

They're good against an attacking side but we need SOME threat going forward. DCL can't make something out of nothing, he needs support. Richarlison used ot be able to but he's cack this season. Only one who can do that is James. Getting a goal then sitting back is a really poor strategy.